Comments on: Anatomy of a slumber party

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:10:09 +0000

I hosted our first sleepover last fall when my big kid’s best friend was over for a playdate and her mama called with a medical emergency for our guest’s baby sib. Could our guest stay? We rolled with it. I felt nervous at the time, but I lucked out on a lot of fronts. Fortunately the girls wore the same size (jammies: check!); the preschool sleeping bag was home for washing that weekend (my kid was thrilled at the novelty of sleeping on her floor and sharing her bed & animals with her pal); we played lots of dress-up and sent reassuring photo texts to her mama, who was just as worried about her older child’s reaction to not coming home; and I congratulated myself for having a few extra new toothbrushes around (a souvenir for our guest, right?).
Bedtime was trickier, and despite stories, songs, and cuddles, I remember having to go in around 10 and tell an extremely boring and detailed story with lots of repetition to finally get them to go to sleep. I don’t think I slept very well, keeping an ear out for any upsets, but there weren’t any. Our guest’s mom came the next morning and brought in breakfast for all of us, which was nice.
When I host again, I’ll plan something fun and self-directing/distracting (like a movie or board game), and have set up bed time to have an extra special story or some special mellow treat at the start of wind-down to set the tone.

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:12:28 +0000

Worth noting, the further away I get from it, the more fun I think I had.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:08:05 +0000

We had our then 4-year-old niece sleepover once when our son was 2.5, and since it was fall I was silly enough to think making gingerbread houses was a great idea. My husband and I made gingerbread houses and the kids ate candy.
Then this summer we had the now 5-year-old niece AND the 2.5-year-old niece sleep over (our son now 3). They eventually slept on the floor of his room in a big pile of sleeping bags despite the fact that the power was out so no A/C, and overall I considered it a success. I did this in the summer because I am a teacher- don’t think I could manage it during the school year!!

By: Jennifer PM

Jennifer PM — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:08:46 +0000

Too cute! Sounds exhausting, but fun. Still a few years off for us but I’m glad for the sneak peak.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:58:19 +0000

I had a 4-year old friend of Scarlett’s sleep over Saturday night. The girls loved sleeping together on the blow-up bed in the playroom and fell asleep at 8.40, 40 minutes after my initial, “Lay down” command. Not bad.

When I served dinner (to four kids because Julian had a friend over until bedtime), I announced that if anyone didn’t like something, they should keep it a secret in order to not hurt my feelings. That actually worked.

The only obstacle was that Julian felt left out and cried about being lonely sleeping in their shared bedroom by himself. I am reluctant to set a precedent for the left out kid to get special treatment or be able to join in the sleepover as mine are not as close in age/gender as yours. I’m open if anyone has suggestions on that front.

By: Megan

Megan — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:54:53 +0000

Thank you for posting. I’m getting ready to host my first multi-kid sleepover and I’m afraid I may be a little naive. I’ve had each kid that is invited sleep over individually so I feel like I’m prepared. I’m armed and ready with an giant inflated waterslide and a movie projector for a backyard movie. I’m trying to keep as much of the hoopla outside for as long as I can. Wish me luck!