Saturday, July 14, 2012

Sleepover Survey Results

39 of you took a minute to answer my little survey about sleepovers, and I really appreciate it!  If it weren't so late I'd make a chart, but I just realized that BJ is on the couch next to me asleep, so I'd better carry him to bed.  In a minute...

It turns out that the majority of you (82%) plan to allow sleepovers (or allowed them) between ages 6 and 9, and it was split evenly between 6-7 and 8-9 with 41% each.

5.1% said you would never allow your child sleepovers.

In the comments some of you specified that sleepovers were only allowed with family members.  We started that as soon as ours were weaned (Mommy needs a night out!).

As for the reasons, a lot of you said that the benefit was not worth the risk of something bad or inappropriate or scary happening.  A lot of you said that the sleepover was too disruptive to the normal routine, and that you paid the price for days afterwards, so why bother?  Lots of you said that you'd have to know the other family REALLY well.

One thing that an IRL friend brought up is that it's easier to have a blanket policy ("Our family does not do sleepovers - period,") than it is to have to evaluate on a case-by-case basis and tell one family, "We don't know you well enough..." or "We don't trust your skeevy older brother."  That actually made a lot of sense to me.  Hard and fast rules are a lot easier for kids to understand, and therefore follow, than flexible rules.  Adults too, for that matter.

Since posting the survey, I've found out that 33% of the kids I was going to invite (2 out of 6) are not allowed to do sleepovers.  So that is going to put the kibash on MG's plans.  It looks like I might be going to Chuck E. Cheese instead.

We went to the Children's Museum with Cate today, and I was far too busy enjoying talking and catching up to take any pictures.  In fact, I think I only took 3 all day.  So, if I don't fall asleep immediately when I hit the pillow, I'll try to send them from my phone.

The survey was fun!  We'll do more of that soon.  I especially liked all the comments!  Thanks again for your help.

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