Hello!

I’ve read a lot of blog posts recently from parents saying that they don’t let their kids sleep over at friends’ houses – even best friends. Their main reasons are that kids aren’t equipped with the maturity to handle a lot of what goes on when largely unsupervised, and you don’t always know who is going to be in the house. It’s got me thinking about how I feel about the topic and what I’ll do when my girls are older.

What do other people do?


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  • Initially I was very hesitant.
    But when my eldest was in Kindy, my parents from the Netherlands and my sister and her family living in Africa, came over to visit us for some weeks. Six extra people in the house was quite full on. The girl next door connected well with my niece and they really wanted a sleepover. I was good friends with my neighbour and loved her and her kids too pieces. So I said yes and this was the beginning of an era with many sleepovers from the time my eldest was in Kindy. I already was organising many play dates 3 or 4 a week and organised pretty much once a week a big catch up with 8 mums and all the children at our place. Sleepovers began easily to roll out of that. For my kids this was a wonderful time, for myself too.


  • No way i don’t like sleep overs at all


  • I think once you know the parents it’s ok. Otherwise host yourself


  • As long as you know and trust the supervising parent I would allow it.


  • I used to love sleep overs as a child, I think I was about 6?
    yes go for it! a night off!


  • My best memories are of sleepovers at my best friends house! But unfortunately these days you need to be more careful :( I would only be okay if I knew the family really well or I know she is old enough to look after herself…


  • My kids have had some cousins and friends who are neighbours sleep over!


  • Some of my best childhood memories involved sleep overs with friends. I think if you have a relationship with the family it is fine..Trust your gut instinct


  • I am worried about that too. More of the male adults and siblings in the house. Different households may have different norms on levels of supervision depending on many factors. I am also not sure how to approach this. You can talk to the host mother but how to do this without sounding bad, I am unsure.


  • We swore we’d never do it but we did let our eldest who was 10 at the time have a sleepover at her friends place for her birthday party with about 10 other girls & we’d met her parents….other than that our girls only ever sleep at their grandparents place occassionally.


  • I think that if there was a best friend that has had numerous play dates together and maybe even dinners together then yes but I would have to be comfortable with the parents and know them quite well and trust that my child would be ok.
    My son is 8 and I would allow a sleep over under those circumstances


  • My kids had sleepovers, only with people I know fairly well and usually when there’s more than one child sleeping over. I had a good talk with both of them beforehand, making sure they knew they didn’t have to do anything they didn’t want to. And they were about 10 for their first visit. If it’s easier, invite kids to your house for the sleepover


  • A friend of mine with a school age daughter has a definite no policy regarding sleep overs, my neice has had several sleep overs starting around age 5


  • I def think yes. It helps kids become comfortable in unfamiliar surroundings with people they feel comfortable with. I remember sleeping over all the time at my friends house when we were younger and it was some of the most fun I had. It also shows trust, responsibility and other qualities you would want your child to have. The earliest I would let my child have a sleepover at friends house would be 5


  • My oldest kid is 6 and until he is about 10 there is no way i would let him sleep at a friends house, but i would at a family members house(like a grandparents). He gets scared at night and the drop of a hat. Even sleeping at nans i sometimes get a call in the middle of the night to come get him or To tell him he is safe and i will see him the mornin. But i do have friends in my mothers group who have let their kids the same age sleep over at eachothers place, and they have had no problems. But the kids have known eachother since birth and there is a high level of trust among the mums as they have know each other for years.


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