A sleep over?
At 6 years old?
I didn't know if we were ready for this but some how this sweet smile convinced me.
One of Zach's best friends, Carlos, REALLY REALLY wanted to sleep over.
After talking with his mom we decided to try it out and see how the boys did.
I told mine this was a trial sleep over this did not set a precedent that we would do this again in the future. There is just too much crazy stuff happening now days. We are super sheltered here but I don't want to start a trend now that is acceptable when circumstances change.
At 6 years old?
I didn't know if we were ready for this but some how this sweet smile convinced me.
One of Zach's best friends, Carlos, REALLY REALLY wanted to sleep over.
After talking with his mom we decided to try it out and see how the boys did.
I told mine this was a trial sleep over this did not set a precedent that we would do this again in the future. There is just too much crazy stuff happening now days. We are super sheltered here but I don't want to start a trend now that is acceptable when circumstances change.
So Wed. evening after all the boys attended a mutual friend's birthday party, then they came over.
There was A LOT of Wii, laughter, and silliness. Then the evening ended around 10:00pm after a movie.
They all went to bed without too much trouble and only romped around for about 10-15 minutes.
What I didn't expect was for Carlos to wake up and get my boys up at
5:30AM!
I shushed them all back to bed surprised that Carlos was even able to get Zach to open his eyes at that hour. Again I was surprised that they remained there until 6:30. When they were too hungry and awake to stay in their room they came and asked if they could get up. I must also note Chris attended a Saudi Wedding the night before and was not asked to arrive until 10:30pm so he got home at 2AM and didn't hear any of this. So, at 6:30 I told the boys to eat the banana muffins that Carlos' mom had sent and get some milk and just be as quiet as possible to let everyone else sleep.
UH, what was I thinking of course two silly 6 year olds couldn't possible be quiet in a house that echos like the Grand Canyon. So by 7 the whole house was up, except Chris of course.
When I went out to see what they were up to there were no muffins in sight and they were gorging themselves on the birthday candy from the party.
Overall the boys were very well behaved, other than 'the little brothers want to play too conflicts', and Carlos stayed here until around 1pm.
And then the SASS started!
Zach became a different child! He whined and fussed and sassed and talked back the rest of the day. It was like he was possessed by someone else not our sweet Zach. All due to the lack of sleep of course. So although he did not want to hear this, after we had had ENOUGH of the sass, I explained that although the boys were good we would not be doing future sleepovers. He could have/go over to a friends house for Wii, dinner, and movies but at 10pm they or he will go/come home and sleep in their own beds allowing them to sleep in the next morning.
UH, what was I thinking of course two silly 6 year olds couldn't possible be quiet in a house that echos like the Grand Canyon. So by 7 the whole house was up, except Chris of course.
When I went out to see what they were up to there were no muffins in sight and they were gorging themselves on the birthday candy from the party.
Overall the boys were very well behaved, other than 'the little brothers want to play too conflicts', and Carlos stayed here until around 1pm.
And then the SASS started!
Zach became a different child! He whined and fussed and sassed and talked back the rest of the day. It was like he was possessed by someone else not our sweet Zach. All due to the lack of sleep of course. So although he did not want to hear this, after we had had ENOUGH of the sass, I explained that although the boys were good we would not be doing future sleepovers. He could have/go over to a friends house for Wii, dinner, and movies but at 10pm they or he will go/come home and sleep in their own beds allowing them to sleep in the next morning.
Some things never change. I did the trial sleep-overs with my kids as well back in the day. I tried it with the first one or two kids and came to the same conclusions as you did. It always made for crabby kids and grouchy mom the next day since none of us got much sleep. That was reason number one for banning them. Reasons number two and three and so on became very apparent as this world became a different and less innocent place where dangers lurk in the darkness. Thus, despite much groaning and wailing, our kids didn't do sleep overs. So far at least two of them have thanked me for it. So hang in there, yours will probably fight that rule from time to time (girls really hate it) but I stand by our decision that it was a good one.
ReplyDeleteIts good to hear your friend Ruth's experience. And I've found the same thing with S and even playdates, the SASS definitely comes out! Now I know what my mom was talking about after I was at my friends house.
ReplyDeleteWe don't do sleepovers either. It all started when Matt's sister told us that they do "late-overs" - the same thing you guys have decided to do. It works so much better!
ReplyDelete