The one thing that I am absolutely terrified of is the question “Mama, can I go to so and so’s house for a sleep over?”
Sleepover was something I never had to worry about when I was living in Malaysia. we never had a sleep over in Malaysia..
Basically there are two things that concerned me.
1. I don’t trust others when it came to the safety and welfare of my kids.
2. Using TP.

Toothless had the first invitation for a sleepover party when he was in Kindergarten. There was no way I was going to let my 6 year old son stay overnight at a strangers house. So I let him go to the party and picked him up at 7.30 pm. He wasn’t very pleased., I didn’t expect him to be.

Then Yaya was invited to her best friend’s house for a sleep over and I felt my world was about to fall apart. I tried to find any reason, any reason at all to prevent her from going, but there was nothing.
Her best friend’s mother is my friend and I knew the family well enough. I felt I was trapped. I didn’t want her to spend the night in someone else’s house because I was worried about her safety even though I knew my friend wouldn’t harm my daughter in any way.

What was I going to tell my friend? that I don’t trust her to take good care of my daughter?

I spend the next few days talking to my daughter about being safe. What is appropriate and what is not appropriate. I told her she can call me any time of the day if she was not happy at her friend’s place and I will come and pick her up.
I wrote her care card number and all the emergency phone number in a card and gave to her.
I bought her a box of flushable wipes.
Yaya couldn’t wait to go to her friend’s house and shooed me away when I tried to linger on.
Then I spend all night trying to keep awake, so in the event my daughter called, I won’t miss hearing the phone ring..
It was mentally exhausting and I wanted to kill the person who invented sleep over.

Then I had a Eureka moment.

Instead of my child going to someone else’s house, why not invite them to my house?

We have regular sleep over party at our house now.
I usually have it on Friday.
Friday is usually “any time O’clock” at home. ie the kids can go to bed at any time they wish to. (Sunday to Thursday they go to bed at 9PM).
So I don’t have any issues when the kids don’t go to bed on time on Friday. I usually buy pizza and bake muffins and make some salad. Then we rent a “surprise” movie( Surprise for the kids because the movie probably was released before they were born and a big deal for me as I don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to rent it) and I make some popcorn and let the kids watch the movie.
Last Friday we had seven kids for sleep over. It was fun.
They watched Chicken little. They had fun and I had peace of mind.

tp: toilet paper