A Parents Guide To Surviving Sleepovers

Sleepovers are great when your kids are going to spend the night at another child’s home, but not so great when it’s your turn to host a gaggle of kids at your home for the night. But if you have kids, especially if you have little girls, sleepovers are a fact of life. As the mother of four daughters who has hosted hundreds of sleepovers over the years I am sharing these tips to help you survive a sleepover without losing too much sleep or losing your mind:

Make Sure You Have All The Parents Numbers

These days every child will come to your child’s sleepover with a cell phone they can use to text or call their parents. But if they get sick and are vomiting or feverish they probably won’t be able to call or text their parents and you will need to be able to do that. And if the child is misbehaving they are probably not going to want to call their parents because then their parents will know about their bad behavior and in that case, you will need to be able to call the parents yourself. As each child is dropped off get a phone number from the parent where they can be reached. Write the numbers down on a pad and keep that pad handy.

Set Up A Designated Party Space

You might be tempted to shuffle all the kids off to your child’s bedroom in order to get them out of the way. But that just means they will be sneaking around the house. All night to get snacks, to go to the bathroom, to watch videos and so on. Instead, go on the offensive and turn the family room, basement. Even the dining room into party central for the night. Make sure that the room you choose is close to a bathroom. Move the TV in there if there isn’t a TV in there already. Make sure there are sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows laid out around the room. Have all the kids put their stuff in that room so you won’t be looking for missing stuff the next day.

Put Out Snacks, Drinks, And Supplies

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had an entire fridge full of food. Put in jeopardy by a child not closing the fridge all the way during a snack run. Don’t make the mistake of letting them get their own snacks. Instead put out snacks, drinks, bottled water, and lots of paper plates, cups, bowls, and paper towels in the kitchen. That way they can help themselves to snacks without ransacking your kitchen. And using paper plates, cups, and bowls will mean that you won’t have a pile of dishes.

Make Sure Everyone Knows The Rules

Parties are supposed to be fun, but anytime you have a large number of kids in your home you need to lay down some ground rules before the fun can begin. Make sure that the kids know what is allowed and what isn’t. That breaking the rules will result in their parents being called to come and pick them up.