Do you allow your kids to sleepover at friends' homes? We've forbidden our children from attending sleepovers. My father didn't let me spend the night at my friend's houses. I hated it when I was a kid but as a parent, my husband and I agree that there is no reason that our children ever need to sleepover. We get that it's social and fun but, for us, it boils down to the fact that no one is going to take care of our kids the way we do.
If the house catches on fire, whom do you think the parents are grabbing first? Their kids or our kids? The point is, it's never gonna happen for my girls.
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Apparently, my hell nah attitude on sleepovers is catching on because lots of parents are starting to ban sleepovers completely. My girls understand our reasoning. We've thoroughly explained it.
We will gladly allow them to have 5 of their closest friends spend the night any night of the week, all summer long but they will never, ever, ever be allowed to spend the night at their bestie's house. If they are invited to a sleepover, they can go over until midnight, then it's back home. Honestly, I don't think that the 1970's was any less dangerous than 2014—I'm quite sure there were irresponsible parents and pedophile neighbors back then too.
It's just that sleepovers make your children vulnerable in so many ways. They are at the mercy of someone else to protect them from whatever might happen and that isn't just limited to getting molested by a rogue weird uncle or being left behind in case of a natural disaster. Ever think about the kid who accidentally gets his head blown off because there was an unlocked gun in the house or the two girls who get kidnapped walking to the neighborhood park?
The problem is that sleepovers require constant supervision by the hosting parents and it's hard to stay up all night refereeing girl drama or separating boys who rough house or teens who want to do more than that. You want your kid to have fun and you don't want to be the weird parent who spent the whole sleepover yelling at the kids or not giving them any space but at the same time, kids act crazy when they are alone together.
It's natural behavior, there is nothing deviant abou but that's how people fall off beds and bust their heads or encourage one another to sneak out of windows. I know all this can happen at any time of the day and I know that I don't want to spend my children's entire childhood worry about everything.
My girls are 7 and 9 and don't allow our girls to sleepover anywhere right now. That might change one of these days once my girls are old enough to take care of themselves and if I really know and trust the parents hosting. Maybe I will reconsider then, but for now, we will all be peacefully sleeping under my roof.
Image via The TRUTH about Motherhood
