Sleepover

MY son is very excitedly looking forward to a double sleepover this week. Yes, you heard right, my mad friend has agreed to not one but two nights with an extra child in the house.

It's a parenting  rite of passage when you agree to your first sleepover. What age? How many children? Do you plan activities? Will they sleep???

long hair + vomit = 1am bath

Well it depends on the child as to what age. My daughter was just 5 and was desperate to stay with her friend. We agreed that we would allow it whilst being prepared to pick her up if it got to bedtime and she changed her mind.

The phone never rang and I assumed it had all gone well - until I turned up to pick her up and her friend's mum said she had been sick in the night so needed a 1am bath and hair wash - no mean feat with my daughter's hair which stretches to her thighs when wet!

 I was full of admiration for the mum who hadn't caved and called me in the wee small hours - not sure I would have coped with another child's vomit so calmly!

How many children? Well I'm probably not the best person to ask since I have more than the average number of children in my house generally! But I usually have a max of four extra and only when I have already met them and checked they are not the sort of kids who will trash my house or generally be too much to handle. And that tends to be pre-teens or teens - younger children we have one at a time!
It does give you an easy and cheap cop-out for birthday parties. Laser quest parties ££££, paintballing ££££ cinema £££ - sleepover with gaming or dvd and pizzas £!!!

That brings me to activities. I have more boys than girls and generally their friends like to bring along their controllers and play multi-player on the X-Box. It's a great opportunity to share games and discover what they want to spend their pocket money on after trying the game out.
I remember one sleepover DS#2 went to where I dropped off a car load of teens lugging controllers and consoles and TVs and computer screens! They set up a kind of games zone for the night - not sure how the National Grid coped that evening!

My daughter enjoys "Midnight feasts" (although the treats don't often last past 9pm) and TV marathons. I always pull out the sofa bed and our sleepover parties happen downstairs to give the other kids (and us!) half a chance of sleeping.
The noisiest sleepovers were always held by DS#1 - many a time I had to stomp downstairs and threaten them with complete mommy meltdown if they didn't quieten down. Nice boys but noisy!

Will they sleep? If you count on "no" being the answer you will be pleasantly surprised when they do!