A home want to to join me in the (anti) sleepover club??

[Yamin151]

Am I alone here? In loathing sleepovers? Is loathing too song a word? Maybe. I don't understand why these days (how old am I???) sleepovers are purely about staying awake as long a possible?
I am sure I am not the only one with children who hanker after sleepovers but cannot tolerate them and turn into demons after 2 hours sleep and half the haribo counter!?

I wonder if we stand alone, it certainly feels like it, in feeling that sleepovers mean, fun, movie, pizza, choc, late night, chatting on, but then settling down, late, but still at NIGHT. We try this, but are declared 'fun-suckers' and it's very hard as actually we do seem to be in the minority. Most parents seem to leave the kids downstairs with sweets, tv, and just hope for the best. And no complaint that there are tired adults in the house who have to get up the next morning and cope with the sleep deprived zombies, on a couple of hours sleep themselves??

I obviously had a dull childhood, when I did sleepovers, we slept. Chatted, giggled, stayed up later, but slept.

Ok, rant over. Hoping I'm not alone. They're only young once etc etc, but I'm not sure the misery of the next day is worth it, I really don't. But can't deprive my boys of all sleepovers as that's not fair either. Aaaaaggggghhhhhh!

[scary mum]

I'm with you. Fortunately my children have done them about twice each and I don't think they like them either. We've never had one here & they know not to ask

[KS10]

Hate them with a passion but have given in. DD is sulky at the best of times and sleepovers certainly don't help, but it's tiring saying no all the time. We've only had a couple of girls from primary over and one from secondary, but I think we're going to have a few more soon. I'm dreading the more-than-one-girl sleepover. Funnily enough, DS was never much into them but is definitely making up for lost time.

[Yamin151]

I wish there was a general agreement amongst most parents to say no, or keep them to SLEEPovers, at least before midnight, so that we wouldn't feel so out of place in being the bad cop!

[Daogroupie]

They are not sleepovers they are notsleepovers!

I have long since embraced the concept that my dd's friends think I am a nerdy killjoy.

Fortunately my dds love sleep more than being cool and will do them but prefer to have a good lie in at the weekend.

When they do succumb they are so shockingly bad-tempered when they return that all communication has to be disregarded.

I hate the idea of parents being forced to disrupt the weekend for everyone else because of peer pressure. I wonder if everyone secretly hates them but thinks they are the only one who does! DG

[Catseye]

Back in my day there was no such thing as "sleep-overs" at least not in my parents two up two down home with 5 of us crammed in like sardines.

But we played from sunrise to sunset by canals,railways and scrap-yards how we all managed to survived I know not!

I feel stronger for it -the greatest education I had, including my ancient Uni!!!

It did me no harm (except for my need still to be somewhat rebellious and contemptuous of authority)- I sometimes feel sorry for my children who are genuinely middle class and no have idea how to manage risk.

A very first world problem!

[Snowdrops]

First two or three years in grammar and we seemed to be the only mugs soft enough to allow sleepovers.

The first one was noisy. VERY noisy. Not just because they were vocally noisy, but dd's bedroom is directly above ours. Soon quietened down I can tell you, but it also made me aware she needed a newer, thicker, more sound insulating carpet. That helped tremendously too

Of course now we don't have sleepovers. She stays over at their's instead. I guess the message finally got through

[copella]

Loath them here too. Eldest had one at the end of y6 an experience we have chosen never to repeat. The youngest goes to friends who seem to have houses large enough to cope with the noise.

[doodles]

Hate them, hate the, hate them!

That's all I have to say on the matter apart to agree with what's already been written.

[southbucks3]

I can't say I enjoy them, but I don't hate them, cleaning the house in preparation is the biggest faff tbh....however we do always find lots of socks in the playroom, so even that has its benefits.
We only do group sleep overs in the summer so they can all stay out in the garden in tents, they can stay in there catching up on sleep until the middle of the next day if they want or pile into the house and wire up to the PlayStation and alternate sleep with eating or playing. I barely see them until it's time for a hug and a cheerio, they are not my friends so I don't really interfere, neither are they of primary age, so if they know they have to leave early in the morning for sports fixtures then it's up to them to arrange a lift home at 10 -11pm or understand they may be a bit rubbish and sleep deprived, the same applies if my boys sleep over, if they need to be up early I ask them to do so quietly and politely, do their fixture, then go to bed back at home for a few hours, sometimes they even return to the sleep over house for the rest of the second day, if it's been agreed.
Maybe it's the timing that's wrong for you? Invite them for a late tea, keep them all day after, by the afternoon they are just dozing about in the playroom, enjoying one another's company and helping themselves to toast, returned to parents in time for by 5pm for dinner and sleep. Don't structure their time or feel the need to involve yourself, other than a few rounds of "clear up your mess, it stinks in here, open the windows, here is a tenner go and stock up on bread and biscuits."
Birthdays are different of course, you must also transport them all to some ridiculously expensive activity such as bowling, zorbing, bouncing, or any other "ing" which entails far more effort, but I guess it is their birthday.
I often slept round my best mates house in the summer holidays, her mum worked so we had free reign the next day, my mum just popping by every so often to nag us a bit (we lived ten houses apart), happy days, feral kids, chilled parents. (Yes catseye, we spent far too much time exploring scrapyards, woodlands, rivers, canals and huge empty houses too but I was far from deprived as a child)