I'm SORRY we don't do sleepovers

13:43

This may seem so very odd as some of my fun childhood memories are of sleeping over at friends or having them stay over at my house.  However times are so very different.

I had a lovely conversation with a mommy friend mentioning all my concerns and issues surrounding sleepovers and she said “hey we have decided as a family that we will never have sleepovers”.  This made me feel not so crazy.

So many issues I have with sleepovers now a days and honestly it just doesn’t fit for our family.  Maybe because I am such a controlling parent however I am also totally ok with that. I never knew how terrifying being a parent would be until I was in the midst of trying to raise my children.   I would rather have a rule from day one that have to implement this rule later in life due to an unfortunate circumstance.

From what we have seen from sleepovers kids like to stay up late, which can be a tonne of fun however for me as a parent the next day is miserable.  I’ve dealt with my own child suffering from anxiety as well children sleeping over with similar issues.  We have implemented such good routine and sleep habits that we simply don’t want to disrupt this.  I'm currently laughing while typing this because our older two children sleep well.....let me tell you about this 4 month old of ours who has thrown anything we thought we knew right out the window.

Kids now a days have technology readily available and this isn’t something I feel comfortable with as a parent.  We have all of our technology limited and restricted however not every other family is the same.  Imagine if your child has access to Netflix with no parent around. Now imagine another child has an older cousin or friend teaching your child something.  Imagine your child knows how to spell and how readily available very awful things are on the internet.  This makes me very uncomfortable.

Now that we have 3 children we have to take the best interest of the whole family into consideration.  Whether it's our oldest son having a friend sleepover and having his younger sister just next door in her room.  It takes just a minute for something awful to happen.  This is not something I am willing to have as a parental regret.  Now we choose our friends and our childrens friends and they are all great people, however sometimes not great things can be taught to unsuspecting little people.  We may not even be aware of this. I remember as a teenage having sleepovers and sneaking out and let me tell you that we did nothing GOOD!  Chances are most sleepovers are innocent, but I'm not taking any chances.

So rather than having to make this rule at a later date we have chosen to implement this from the start.  We sat our oldest down (who is 7) to discuss this and he was not upset at all.  He completely understood and said it's ok guys I like sleeping in my own bed. 

We discussed our solution to our NO SLEEPOVER POLICY.  This included "late night date night" which is something special, just like sleepovers.  We could go for pizza and a movie and stay up late.  Yet everyone goes home to their own beds.  We also discussed doing family sleepovers.  We could stay over as a family at our friends houses but I don't see that happening any time soon with our baby who doesn't sleep.


I was so very grateful for having reached out to a friend who made me feel a lot less crazy and that my decision was absolutely normal.

For me sleepovers just aren't worth it.  I am just not willing to take any chances I might day regret.

You Might Also Like

0 comments

More about me

I'm also a photographer! Check out my work at

Let's be Social

Popular Posts