Does anyone actually enjoy sleepovers? Top tips needed please!

[olivo]

I'm sure I must be getting things wrong, as I really struggle with sleepovers. I find them really stressful ,even though I try hard to make them enjoyable.

Top tips for 'how to make a sleepover enjoyable and stress free' please!

i find them stressful too. things i have found help are:

organise the room in advance. so have activites (board games like twister, nail polish, hair bands for makeovers etc) in there already

take the kids for an evening run around before bed. the local park works, even better if there is play equipment

leave them to their own devices. they have activities etc and know where to find you, so other than suggesting when to get pyjamas on and telling them when its time to go to sleep, stay in a another room.

all the best x

How old are the DC?

DS & his friends are 13/14. They're actually really lovely boys, really polite, no trouble. We go upstairs & leave them playing Magic The Gathering and listening to music.

They’re not supposed to be enjoyable for the parent are they? Just the DC? I can’t imagine my parents ever enjoyed my sleepovers, just tolerated them for my sake!

Hey
I started a thread about this recently....
You are not alone, I don't like them!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3653435-I-really-hate-sleepovers

I wouldn't say I found them stressful, but can't say I've ever enjoyed hosting them. Unfortunately my dd and her friends love them!

Thanks, it helps to know I'm not alone( sorry, .i had missed your thread on them, I will take a look!) it's easier with my teen, the pretty much do their own thing and I just make sure there is loads of food around, but quite a new thing for my 9yo.

We didn't really have them before we were teens, back in my day, m parents were lucky!

I find having a few activities up your sleeve to suggest if they're getting a bit bored works well. Its usually baking here but I leave them to their own devices now, DD12 has been able to competently bake a sponge cake for a few years. I don't bother with rules about screens or sweets either. Surely that's all part of the fun of a sleepover. The only rule I have is that DD brushes her teeth properly because of her braces.

They sleep downstairs normally. We are lucky in that we have two rooms downstairs so they take over one and we have the other. DH has got the morning clear up down to a fine art now! And we can't hear them from our bedroom so I just go to sleep and let them crack on.

The only thing that stresses me out is the uncertainty of the morning after. Once the sleep over is done, i need a firm plan of when my house will be my own again. I'm not good with people just hanging around the following day! (But I'm the same if we have our friends to stay over too, not just kids! DH's friends especially seem to not read the cues and go, they're happy to just mooch around my house!) I'm an introvert by nature so my hospitality only extends so far before I need my own space.

Surely the enjoyment is when they have the sleepover elsewhere!

That is part of the problem they won't go to other people's!

It all depends on how well you know the other DC.

Some of my DCs friends have been coming over for years, when they stay over it really doesn't bother me. Sleepover parties where they sleep in the living room and I'm consigned to my bedroom are for birthdays and I grit my teeth through it.

My ds best friends mum is really relaxed, I can leave her son playing with mine whilst I go shopping ect. His other friends mum is a wife of the local Tory councillor, acts quite posh and I feel on edge whilst her ds is in my council flat!

No sleepovers til secondary school in our house.
Works well ime...

They have to go to other people's! That's why you host! Mind you, I only have one so when she's off at a friend's its a bonus date night for us.

Have it on Boxing night.[santa]
Or
Do something physical like swimming to knacker them.

No advice I'm afraid, just wanted to let you know that nobody in their right mind enjoys sleepovers .

When the kids are sleeping over at yours, that is!

I prefer to call them Wake overs.

Well obviously you won’t enjoy it. I provided unhealthy food and drinks and largely kept out of the way, only appearing to shriek at them at intervals in the early hours when they were noisy.
A friend posted a photo on Facebook of her sitting room prepped for her daughter’s sleepover, it honestly was breathtaking, five little teepee type things at the head of little made up beds on the floor, each with bunting and homemade signs with their names. There were also those little wooden trays on stands that people use for breakfast in bed straddling each bed with treats laid out.
It was Pinterest porn. I’d have loved it as a child, but I must admit it made me want to kill myself.
It was magical though. I couldn’t believe it.

Yes @LightDrizzle those teepee things look unreal. You can even do adult yurt type ones. @olivo my DD is too young for sleepovers yet, she's 6, but I dread the day they start.

I'm not a fan but a few things make it less stressful. Namely leaving them to it and not trying to micromanage. As long as they are quiet they can crack on. I never feel like I can sleep until I know they are asleep though. So I'm always really tired after a sleepover.

Thank you, nice to know it's vaguely normal not to enjoy! I have taken your tips on board