Sleep-overs

J.,
My boys have sleep overs just like girls do. Knowing the age of your boys is important. My oldest was having sleepovers by age 5. Pizza and movies and then bed by 10. Now the boys play in the woods (in the subdivision) and come in late (9-10) eat and watch a movie or play video games. Some of the boys sleep over, some go home.

I accept that my house is going to get loud and I usually watch a movie in another room. Where I can hear what is going on but not hovering over the boys.

For younger boys (5-10), I would have them put their sleeping bags or blankets on the floor by 9 so they can start to settle down. Younger kids can get upset when they become too tired.

One last thing, sometimes, even the best of friends aren't ready for overnight sleepovers. We have had partial sleepovers where the guests come in their jammies and hang out until about 10 and then go home.

Good luck and have fun.
~K.

We just started sleepovers at our house and it has gone pretty well. I let the kids lead on what they want to do and then I just supervise. I have two children and of course they have to each have a friend at the same time. We usually just play outside until dark, then come inside for popcorn & a movie, then set up sleeping bags and they can chatter/play until they dose off. I too prepared myself that there will be a lot of noise and a big mess when it's all over. It does not have to be a production, the sleep over is basically an extension of playtime.
Have Fun

My 8yo son has many friends his age or near it in the neighborhood. Kids just like to get together and stay up late. All of the kids in our neighborhood do sleep-overs, but it's not a big production. Like last night my son chirped me on the walkie-talkie he carries around the neighborhood (so I can get in touch with him without yelling! lol!) and said "Hey Mom, can I stay the night at Kyle's house?" and I said "Sure but you have to come home first so you can eat dinner, feed Daisy (pet rat) and get your stuff". So he came home, with Kyle in tow, ate his dinner, fed his rat and grabbed his stuff then bolted back out the door and over to Kyle's house. Simple. He hosts these "sleep-overs" quite often too. His best friend is only a couple of houses over, and the two of them are typically together at either house, although last night was with different friends. I also understand that last night there was a third boy staying over at Kyle's house too.

We have done larger sleep-overs, for his birthday for example, and I took the boys to a 3D movie then we came back to our house and had an ATV rally (they all have them), cake and ice-cream. But again, that was for a birthday. Normally I wouldn't do activities for a sleep-over. Not for boys anyways. They're happy with a Nintendo Wii and chips. lol!

we have had several sleepovers. The boys have had up to 10 spend the night before and did fine. Girls have more fights, arguments, and drama. Always make sure you have even numbers because someone feels left out with odd numbers and never do 3 because that triangle never works out. Usually it's your kid feeling pulled in the middle making choices they don't want to make with the triangle situation..especially with girls. I have helped with an annual girls sleepover at church for the past 7 years and we have had up to 75 girls attend. With groups that big we have to entertain and keep them constantly busy or major DRAMA happens. Our goal is to wear them out until midnight and then put in a movie and hope they are asleep by 2 am when the movie is over. Most of them get up by 7 and we have breakfast at 7:30, pack up and they are ready to leave by 9 so we don't really plan activities for the next morning as it takes them a while to get everything packed.

I let them stay up as long as they want, usually they fall asleep by 3 or 4 am. I usually go to bed at 2 or 3 am and tell them at that point they have to lay down and watch a movie and can talk quietly but don't let them stay up running all over the house once I decide to go to bed.

I always dream that they will sleep in since I let them stay up late but just about every sleepover someone will wake up at 6 or 7 am so then I get up and usually turn on cartoons or put in a movie with the volume on as low as possible and tell the ones that are awake to watch a movie and not wake up the other kids. Most of the time that works for about 1/2 hour or an hour.

I don't entertain them much with the sleepovers we have at home unless we all want to play a board game but most of the time they play video games or watch movies.

We usually have pizza to eat in the evening when they seem hungry and I usually make pancakes for breakfast.

I usually have them start at 7:00 PM and end at 9 or 10 am. If you have them picked up too early then you are usually rushing around all morning to have them ready when the parents come to pick them up and that can be very overwhelming and wear you out especially if you didn't much sleep.

I am easy going and kids noise doesn't bother me at all and have a lot of patience so sleepovers don't bother me.

You mentioned being anxious so you probably wouldn't want to start with a big group and start with 1 spending the night then try another one with 3 friends+1 (your kid) and see how well that goes.

Would recommend the kids be past Kindergarten age for sleepovers. They tend to get homesick and whine more when that young.

We usually have the sleep over from 4pm to 11am. We may rent a movie and let the kiddos stay up past their bed time. We eat plenty of junk food (haha)... even made mini pizzas before.
I don't usually let more than one child stay over at the time. I have three kids of my own and don't really want a house full of kids.

My son had sleep overs from early grade school on.. for birthday's we would usually go mini golfing or as they got older we would take them to a par three that had lights. Usually around 11:00 I would take them Krispy Creme for donuts. I have to tell you they really enjoyed the Krispy Creme trips as an annual trip. My son just turned 21 and had the same group of friends over Saturday night and they were still talking about the trips to Krispy Creme.

My son is now 11 and still likes to have friends spend the night. No activities are usually planned. They always find something to keep them busy. They go from outside playing to inside playing videos or a movie. If they have multiple boys over for birthday sleepover, most parents always have p/u time on invitation of 10am, I have even seen 9am. They just like to get together.