Do you think it's okay for young boys/girls to have sleepovers with each other? I'm talking about kids around the age of 6 who want to have their friend of the opposite sex sleepover. My best friend has a little boy, and I have a little girl and we're wondering if this is appropriate. If you feel it is okay, would you have the kids sleep in seperate rooms? Any thoughts or experiences on this would be helpful. Thank you.
2006-07-27 11:13:54 · 21 answers · asked by Melissa 7 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
Wow, there are really 2 sides to it all. One person cant imagine why we would question the appropriateness of this, and another says it would be wrong and we wouldn't be protecting our children if we let them. I see that most feel it's okay, but that we should seperate them.
2006-07-27 11:40:55 · update #1
That's perfectly ok, just make sure you pop your head in and check on them from time to time.
Edit: OK, I had to add this. To all you saying it's a terrible idea, Pu-lease! Wow. If you cant handle the kids saying "but you let us when we were younger" then you shouldn't be parents.
As a camp counselor, we had co-ed camping trips where guys and girls shared tents *gasp* and none of them went hope with babies in their bellies! Just make sure you keep an eye on thing and that nothing is inappropriate, and everything will be fine. Problems arise when the adult is lazy and leaves the kids alone for extended periods of time.
Your kids are still kids at 6, and even if they were older it'd still be ok as long as you kept the door open and kept an eye on things. Sleeping in seperate rooms might be ideal when they are older and having sleepovers, but at 6 its not a problem.
I had a boy-girl sleepover party on my 13th birthday, and we had a boys room to sleep in and a girls room to sleep in, but we all crashed out and slept in the living room anyhow. So it's not like the seperate rooms were used until the next morning when we all changed for the day.
People saying it's a terrible thing either have no experience at raising children themselves, or do not know how to properly work with kids.
2006-07-27 11:23:50 · answer #1 · answered by Tyla 2 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely not! It sounds like this is something between you two women wanting to be together as best friends, not about the sleepover. Having had 8 children, I have found that sleepovers are generally not a good idea at all. My kids have learned more crap from sleeping over at someone else's house than you can imagine. And kids the ages of your kids, the parent is the one who gets them started in the first place. Most parents like sleepovers because they have a "night off" and don't watch the kids while they are there. Now that I am down to my youngest 4 left in the house, we don't allow sleepovers at all. We do encourage late nights where they stay until about 10:30 or 11:00. They whined at first but are okay with it the older they get. And even at age six, it is still un appropriate for a boy and girl to sleepover. They will use it against you in the future, "But he's my best friend!" Nonsense! I had a boy cousin that wanted to sleep with me. I didn't feel good about it and I am so grateful in hindsight to his mother who put the kabosh on it. I was just a kid. It could have been very bad. Parents need to protect their kids.
2006-07-27 11:28:14 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it was my child I would say no sleepovers. Because you know they will say later on in life that they used to be able to do it...where do you draw the line? I would say definately stay up late and watch movies or whatever but then the boy/girl has to go home afterwards...it just shows them what is and isn't appropriate. They will remember that later on in life, especially at that age. If they are in school you don't want other kids talking about that either when you really think about it. I hope this helps! I know it sounds like a touchy subject but that is my opinion what I think would be best!
2006-07-27 11:19:18 · answer #3 · answered by Anna 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I personally think it's OK. Growing up my best friend was a boy (Shamus) and when I slept over his house our parents just assumed I was sleeping in his sister's room (she's 10 months younger than him). How wrong they were! But I can honestly say nothing ever happened even when we were 18, just graduated and sleeping over for the last time, and no neither one of us is gay in fact we are both happily married (to other people). As long as the other parents are aware of the situation and they are OK with it go for it!
2006-07-27 11:56:17 · answer #4 · answered by Princess Veronica's Mom 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The short answer: It's fine.
The kids are 6. What are you thinking about that would cause you to even question it?
This is a problem with society today. What kind of mind thinks there may be a problem with two 6 year old sleeping in the same room together?
What are we teaching our kids?!
2006-07-27 11:19:20 · answer #5 · answered by J G 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's perfectly fine. Both my daughters had best friends that were boys and they did/do sleepovers with them. They are just kids for crying out loud! What is going to happen?! My oldest stopped these sleepovers at around 10 years old on her own.
Don't separate them!
2006-07-28 01:51:55 · answer #6 · answered by KathyS 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, boy/girl sleepovers are fine when they are that young. You don't have to put them in different rooms, but what my parents did was kind of just separate them. They still slept in the same room, but the boys slept on one side of the room, and the girls on the other.
2006-07-27 11:18:59 · answer #7 · answered by Un 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's ok but any older and i think it's out of the question its pretty unappropriate once you hit 7 or 8 but that's just my opinion you could prolly have them sleep in different rooms at a sleep over when thier like 8 or 9 but after that they prolly shouldn't have sleepovers at all at least not until there like dating or married or something lol
2006-07-27 11:19:58 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as they are in separate rooms at night, it's just an extended play time that is supervised by a competent adult, preferably one of the parents/grandparents/aunt/uncle, then I do not see a problem. Having them sleep in the same room though could lead to problems since they are young and curious about the opposite sex. Definitely not in the same room!
2006-07-27 11:18:42 · answer #9 · answered by GentleheartedOne 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
of course it is OK, their 6...my son had "girl" friends sleep over in the same room (we have bunk beds) until he was 11. They don't understand sex at that age they are just wanting to have there friend stay the night.
2006-07-27 12:13:07 · answer #10 · answered by beth l 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋