About one year ago, my seven year old twins started asking to host a sleepover. It was the new thing all the kids at school were doing. And eventually I relented. Truly, all of the kids were perfectly behaved and had a wonderful time. But what a stressful, unpleasant experience this was for me.
If you had not tried the sleepover experiment with your children, consider this a warning to you!
One of our problems is my four year old. She is too young to have a sleepover. The big kids are so excited and can’t wait for their friends to come over. And the little one is just left out of everything. So I end up with one four year old who is a nightmare.
But the really big problem is this heightened pressure to make this THE BEST SLEEPOVER POSSIBLE, so you have to become SUPER MOM to make sure everybody is happy and having fun at all times. It is exhausting and impossible.
And then nobody sleeps, so I don’t sleep. Even if they do sleep, the feeling of being responsible for some other children, makes me not sleep.
If you have been through a sleepover before, you may have had some similar experiences. It is not really fun for the parents. And not something I can handle very often.
Thus the Mock Sleepover was created. Basically, it is just a play date, at night. The children get to invite their friends over for dinner and a movie. Everyone can get in their PJs. They play, have a good time, and then go to their home at bedtime. The best part is that I get to actually sleep that night. Plus, even the four year old can invite a friend over since it is not a real sleepover, so that eliminates her feeling left out of the fun!
I am hoping that this will buy us a couple of more years when everyone is older and ready for a real sleepover again. Or at least it will give me a couple of years to get ready for the next one!
