What age did your kids start having sleepovers?

[beantrees]

DS1 mentioned today that he wants his friends to come over and have a sleep over for his birthday. 

He will turn 6 and is in kindergarten. He wants 3 friends from school plus his cousin. He and his cousin have had sleepovers before but never a large group. Is that too young?

Is it a mistake to only invite 3 friends from school? I'm not even sure how I would go about inviting them, we don't have a directory or anything. I'm sure the parents would want to meet me before letting their kid come over. I don't want him passing out invitations in front of everyone at school so I guess I have to figure out their addresses somehow?

[Deleted]

We're not there yet. I started at 7.

3 kids is a good amount for a sleepover...if you can figure out how to invite them hehe.

[scorpio72]

We started in Kindergarten, so 6. The fewer the kids the better. The first one we had there were way too many kids. I think it was 5 or 6 kids. It was chaos and there were tears.  Now we limit to 2-3 kids and my girls are now 12 and 10.  

[fancynewbeesly]

Reese is asking now at 3. She begs ALL the time to let her friend sleepover.

I know I think I started sleeping at friend's house around 3 or 4. But I had no problem sleeping away from home, and it was my best friends house--so my parents were good friends with their family.

[foodiemom]

Totally depends on the kids but don't be surprised if only 1 of the three can make it.

We haven't started yet because I have total home bodies. My oldest is almost nine and I truly don't see him ever agreeing to sleep elsewhere. He doesn't even like to sleep at his grandparents house, and he sees them almost every day.

[trizzie]

We haven't started yet (1st grade, 7 years old). My oldest is also a homebody. He likes to spend the night at my mom and dad's house, but I doubt he would make it anywhere else.

[ashb62]

DD had her first friend sleepover away from home back in the fall. She was almost 7 (1st grade.) It was 6 or 7 girls for her friend's birthday. She hasn't had anyone sleep over here yet, but if she wanted to, we would let her.

[cinco]

DD1 had her first at 8.

[nixie]

Personally, I think it's too young for a friend sleepover. My DD is 6 and in kindergarten and there's no way she's ready for that, but then she is the eldest child in our family and naturally cautious. Maybe my youngest will be all about it at age 6. We've never been invited to or had a sleepover yet, although we've talked about it with cousins.

My SIL used to do 'almost sleepovers.' The kids would all come over, have a fun night together, change into their pajamas, brush teeth, etc, and then they would go home! It actually worked great b/c they had all the fun of an evening together and pajamas and everything, but no getting scared/keeping each other up all night drama. Maybe you could try that?

[arnegard]

DD1 had a couple in Kindergarten. She only stayed the night at one friend's house.
This year she is a 3rd grader and slumber party birthdays are more the norm.

T is a first grader and had one last summer and it bothered her a bit. The girl has 2 older brothers and the Mom left the house at some point. DD kept on my ass for a couple weeks after. She was worried because friend's mom left without them, I would too. Brothers are 18 & 14, so they are plenty capable of being in charge if Mom had to go to the store.

[expectantsteelerfan]

Ha, my ds just had his first 'come over off the bus' playdate and I was a nervous wreck about that! No way I'd be ok with a sleepover with a school friend whose parents I don't really know yet.

[scattered]

Jack is 5 and has one friend he always wants to spend the night but I don't think either of them are ready.

[c3ranch]

DS1 and DS2 (5 & 4) have both slept over at a friend's house and had their friends sleep over, but we are also close friends with the parents so it's not a big deal. If someone asked for my kids to stay the night and I'd never even met them that would be a little weird to me. Have you seen them around school at all? I guess for me it would really depend on the kids. I can think of several kids in DS1's class that I would let him go stay the night at but I either know their parents well or have talked to them at pickup/dropoff several times.

[court26]

DD is in pre-k and she got invited to one a couple of weeks ago. We said no. She said no. LOL. No all around. Well, she said she would stay over if I did too. I was thinking closer to 7-8?

[lala]

We haven't started and DD1 hasn't really asked at 6.5. My guess is she is like me and won't be ready for a few more years and then it will have to be a family she knows really well.

If she wanted to and if I knew the parents, I'd probably let her now.