Hosting my first sleepover .. what do other parents hate about sleepovers?

[Anonymous]

They stay up too late, so the next day is a wreck and nothing gets done. Still true for my 15 year old, so he has to have homework done before Saturday afternoons as I know nothign will get done on Sunday.

[Anonymous]

Male relatives of any age present in the home during the sleepover.

Unsupervised access to the internet.

Pitbulls or firearms in the home.

[Anonymous]

I think if you’re not comfortable with a father or brother being home, you’re not comfortable with sleepovers. And that’s completely okay. But it’s not reasonable to ask them to leave. They live there.

Anonymous wrote:Male relatives of any age present in the home during the sleepover.

Unsupervised access to the internet.

Pitbulls or firearms in the home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think if you’re not comfortable with a father or brother being home, you’re not comfortable with sleepovers. And that’s completely okay. But it’s not reasonable to ask them to leave. They live there.

Anonymous wrote:Male relatives of any age present in the home during the sleepover.

Unsupervised access to the internet.

Pitbulls or firearms in the home.

We always held ours when DH was out of town and I arranged for DS to stay at a friend’s house.

[Anonymous]

We host sleepovers regularly and also take my daughter’s friends with us for long weekends at our beach house multiple times a year. I mostly love it. I won’t host more than 3 at a time. It is a great way for kids to do things in person and not just be on tech all the time.

First, some people hate it because they are introverts and the kids are loud and it is just too much. My husband and I are extroverts and don’t mind this. We also have a second child with profound SN who cannot communicate so hearing kids communicate is mostly pretty joyful for us.

Second, the kids can end up way too tired and miserable. When we host for multiple nights in a row, I tell the kids they need a reasonable bedtime on the second/thurs night. For a one nighter, we make sure we don’t have important plans the next day and have to understand our kid will be extra tired and goes to bed early.

Third, we don’t feel the need to clean the house for kids to come over. We don’t live in filth, but I don’t care if there is a sinkful of dishes when 14 years old come over (same when they were young). Some people feel a lot more pressure around perfection in hosting than we do.

Fourth, some parents hate it because the kids are terribly behaved. This has not been our experience. My daughter’s friend are lovely, say thank you, help shut down the beach house when we leave, etc. I have no problem asking them to clean up, etc. They are also totally fine with our SN kid who is wearing a bib, making noise and drinking from a sippy cup (at age 16) when we all go out to dinner. If a particular kid was obnoxious, we definitely would not take them with us for a weekend again — but that hasn’t happened in 3 years of kids going with us. We also don’t care if something gets accidentally broken. I mean, we don’t love it, but we understand things happen. Years ago, a small child doing cartwheels in our living room put their foot through our wall. This was like a 2 hour play date. It was annoying to get fixed and not cheap, but stuff happens. And that is the only significant thing I can think of in 16 years of having kids.

Honestly, I think keeping kids together in person as much as possible is good for them. Now that they are teens, they are on their phones together. But they are also baking brownies, going swimming, taking over our master bath to have a “spa” night, filming themselves doing dances, etc. As my daughter heads into high school, we are removing all alcohol. We have very little, but anything we want to keep will live in the master bedroom closet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They stay up too late, so the next day is a wreck and nothing gets done. Still true for my 15 year old, so he has to have homework done before Saturday afternoons as I know nothign will get done on Sunday.

I’m sorry, how weak are these kids? My kids have sleepovers on Friday nights and go about their day on Saturday. They go to rehearsals or sports or family activities. Missing a few hour of sleep occasionally is not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

My advice for a 2 person sleepover

Have one surprise project for kids to do if things stall out--a new lego set for them to do together, a new 2 person board game, etc.....just something novel they can do if they run out of ideas of things to do. Don't tell your son about it beforehand.

Do something physical to tire the kids out if possible,especially if sleepover starts before dinner.

Have a movie on standby.

Enforce bedtime--a bit later than usual.

[Anonymous]

Sexual abuse
Guns unsecured in home or present at all
Lack of constant parental supervision
And
Everything

Not a fan of sleepovers.

[Anonymous]

Males are not the only offenders, females and other gender variants are in and outside of the database as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you’re not comfortable with a father or brother being home, you’re not comfortable with sleepovers. And that’s completely okay. But it’s not reasonable to ask them to leave. They live there.

Anonymous wrote:Male relatives of any age present in the home during the sleepover.

Unsupervised access to the internet.

Pitbulls or firearms in the home.

We always held ours when DH was out of town and I arranged for DS to stay at a friend’s house.

This is the way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Male relatives of any age present in the home during the sleepover.

Unsupervised access to the internet.

Pitbulls or firearms in the home.

Ok that rules out 99.99989% of sleepovers for you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Staying up too late is the biggest issue with little kids like yours. Enforce reasonable bedtime

This. And electronics access - they shouldn't have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1/2 sleepovers or PJ parties as we called it is the way to go. Everyone comes in their PJs, have fun, eat food, hang out with friends and then go home at midnight.

Making parents drive late at night like that seems like a terrible idea. This area is plagued with drunk drivers and accidents.

[Anonymous]

Have a bedtime! Do not let them stay up until whenever. 11pm is plenty late enough for elementary school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you’re not comfortable with a father or brother being home, you’re not comfortable with sleepovers. And that’s completely okay. But it’s not reasonable to ask them to leave. They live there.

Anonymous wrote:Male relatives of any age present in the home during the sleepover.

Unsupervised access to the internet.

Pitbulls or firearms in the home.

We always held ours when DH was out of town and I arranged for DS to stay at a friend’s house.

That is really overboard. And if you don't trust your husband and son you've got bigger problems. What if OP's son is a 3 year old boy? He should be sent to someone else's house so his 9 yr old sister can have a friend sleep over? Insane.