It’s the question every parent dreads, usually followed up by a million questions of your own.
Whenever your child asks you if they can sleep over at a friend‘s house, chances are you’ve then asked: “Who are they? Have I met the parents? Who else will be there?”
Even if all the answers check out, you’ll probably still have more than a few hesitations about actually letting them go.
Jackie O knows this feeling all too well, and while she says her seven-year-old daughter Kitty still hasn’t asked for a sleepover yet, she knows the time is coming, and she’s not completely ready for it.
Kitty is Jackie’s only child with her husband of 15 years, Lee Henderson.
Speaking candidly on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, the KIIS FM breakfast radio host said she’s still not sure if she’ll allow her daughter to sleep over at friends’ houses.
The 43-year-old said it’s a matter of safety, and knowing for sure her child will be okay if she sleeps at somebody else’s house.
“I’m still undecided about whether I’m going to let Kitty do sleepovers,” she said.
“When your kid does a sleepover, you have to know you trust those parents inside and out.”
And Jackie said there are plenty of mums who feel the exact same way about the dreaded sleepover.
“Yeah, it’s a thing. I’ve had conversations about this with friends before,” she added.
By comparison, Jackie said her own mum was a lot more lax about her going on sleepovers when she was a little girl.
“I feel like my mum let me sleep at people’s houses she didn’t even know!” she said.
“I remember sleeping at friends’ houses who weren’t even really good friends. Mum didn’t know the parents.”
Top Comments
Overprotective parenting. Denying the child of a different experience. Know the parents, know the child , let them go.. Otherwise they will never leave home or the first time they stay away from home is when they go on camp and then their screaming for mummy becomes the teachers problem.
Also, how insulting you are making the assumption that every other parent in the class is a pedophile and you are not!!
In a word - the #1 reason Mum and Dads fear sleepovers with friends: peadophiles. The fact that they'll probably eat too much junk food, watch too much TV or stay up too late isn't what concerns them. It's the fear that one of the parents, an older sibling, a visiting relative or even a sick Grandparent will take any opportunity to abuse a visiting child. Which totally, 100% sucks. A big chunk of my childhood was spent staying over at other's houses (it was the 70s and 80s) and the thrill of hanging out in your pj's, swapping secrets after dark and giggling way past the usual bedtime was wonderful. People with a sexual predilection for young kids have ruined everything for todays children. Predators have been around for eons of course, but modern parents now know all about them and are just not willing to take the risk. It makes me so sad :(