Age for first sleepover?

[Anonymous]

My five year old has been asking to have a sleepover lately. It seems a little soon to us but we would be willing if other parents are. She has a couple of friends who she has done drop off play dates with. How old was your kid for first sleepover with friend coming over? First sleepover away?

[Anonymous]

First sleepover away at 4 by necessity—I had to have emergency surgery and get to the hospital by 5 am, so DD slept over with a close school friend. Went great and we reciprocated shortly thereafter. Now at 7 she does regular sleepovers with a variety of friends.

[Anonymous]

My DD was in K. It was with my very good friend’s daughter.
Her next sleepover was in 1st with a new school bestie. They had several sleep overs following.

My other DD is in 3rd and still has not had a sleepover bc all of the moms are worried their kids will be molested.

[Anonymous]

My DS was almost 5 when he first spent the night at his friend's house. They are 14 now and still alternate spending the night.

[Anonymous]

My 4-year old asked and I really don’t feel comfortable yet.

[Anonymous]

This is way too young, OP. What’s the rush?

[Anonymous]

I have a just turned 6 year old kindergartener. She asks for sleepovers, but I’ve determined that she really wants all the kids to sleep at our house. We haven’t done any sleepovers yet. (Except at my parents’ house...) She is getting quite self sufficient with morning and bedtime routines, but I would like her to get a bit more outspoken about communicating any needs. I’m thinking about holding off until 7 unless the right opportunity presents itself. I’ve heard other parents mention 8 as a good age for sleepovers. It seems important to have good communication with the other family. I remember all these weird sleepover stories from growing up- clearly I’m in no rush.

[Anonymous]

Around 7. And we don’t do them all that often because I’m tired and the kids don’t sleep!! Lol.

[Anonymous]

3 with very good family friends. She is now 6 and in 1st grade and has not had a school sleepover yet. I am thinking 8ish.

[Anonymous]

DD's school friends started so early - many had done sleepovers by pre-k, as buddy time but also as a function of a close knit community trading opportunities for date nights since a lot of us don't have family in the area.

She went to her first sleepover at 4 or 5 at her best friend's house, and fast forward 5 years - we've continued trading off every couple of months and it's been great. Other kids started sleeping over with us and dd sleeping over with them more like 1st and 2nd grade, all with a handful of families we know well and trust.

By now, the kids are regulars at each other's houses and it's not a big deal to be there, so the bonus for me when I host is that they don't stay up all night like I used to as an older kid on my first sleepovers. They play, they eat dinner and watch a movie, then they brush their teeth and go to bed, maybe read and chat for awhile, and then quiet down to sleep. It's more like having surrogate nieces over.

[Anonymous]

We hosted a sleepover birthday in 1st and DD went to one as well same year but we don’t do it a lot. DD would really prefer kids sleeping over here than going to their house. She had done a sleepover with her preschool best friend at 5. But again more of a one time thing than common.

[Anonymous]

At 4. But she didn’t make it through the night very often. There were a lot of 11 pm pick ups. Mostly kids stayed at our house.

[Anonymous]

My son was 7 when he went to his first sleepover - it was a sleepover party with several boys at the house of a good friend. He hasn't done too many others since (he is 9 now). He said he had a fine time at the sleepover party, but prefers to just have play dates rather than sleepovers, either hosted by us or at someone else's place.

[Anonymous]

We've had other kids sleep at our house twice, but only as a favor to the parents who were out of town for weddings. They were both 4 years old. My kids loved having their friend over both times. But we're not ready to start with the kind of semi-regular purely social sleepovers that older kids do yet. Ours are 3 and 5.

[Anonymous]

Never. Everybody sleeps in their own house. But it might be cultural for us...