Do teenage boys have sleepovers?

[CurlsLDN]

Hello! Would appreciate the experience of Mums who are further through the teenage years than me!

DS is 11, we are going to move house. I have been viewing houses and have various ‘nice to haves’ on my list. I keep thinking ‘oh that’ll be good if he has a sleepover’ or ‘hmm no room here for a sleepover’ - but is this even going to be much of a factor over the next ten years?

during the primary years he had his two close friends sleep over fairly regularly, but they have now all gone to different schools and found new friends so I doubt that will happen much.

obviously in late teen years he might have girlfriends or drunk friends staying over but that’s a different ball game.

in your experience, did your boys often have a friend to sleep over in secondary school?

IME, yes, lots of sleepovers during the secondary school years. Actually probably more than in the primary school years for us. However, our house isn't massive and DS never had a TV in his bedroom so he and his friends used to take over the living room and use the TV for gaming or watching films and DP and I would decamp to our room for the evening.

my teen doesn't... but then he never has friends over either. maybe he's not very sociable!

Yes, both my boys did throughout their teenage years. At lot of my eldest's friends lived rurally and used to crash at ours after a night out drinking when they got a bit older. I would come downstairs to teenage boys and girls legs sprawled out all over my living room some mornings!

So the answer is - yes!

Enjoy the house hunting!

There was a treasured time in my life when I used to count the tugboat sized trainers in my hall on weekend mornings to see how many people were draped all over my living room. Sometimes there was a unicycle….

My DS is 14 and has sleepovers. They mostly play DnD into the early hours eating an unholy amount of snack food.

Yes, all my 3 teenage boys do

Yes, they do. Friendship groups like to gather! A large living room is probably useful to have, as they prefer to be all together, rather than some in a bedroom and some in a living room, for example, which would be pointless for them as sleeping isn’t really factored in!
Some of my dc friends’ parents were lucky enough to have garden annexes which were ideal!

Mine did, and it was more secondary rather than primary. We don’t have a spare room though. We had a spare mattress stuffed between DS’s bed and the wall which came out if a friend stayed over. It wasn’t a weekly thing or anything, maybe in school holidays. I know there were two boys stayed over sometimes, I guess the third boy must have just curled up in his sleeping bag somewhere, perhaps on a spare duvet.

Hmm my ds1 is 12 and seems to be less interested

Mine do! There was a thread recently about how to be the cool house/mum and sleepovers and feeding them was the way to go. My kids don’t go to any sleepovers unless I know the mum really well and know exactly who’s in the house, but lots of kids come here.

My son did most weekends

It’s probably called “staying at a mate’s”

Occasionally, but I wouldn’t let the possibility (or not) of them sway a house purchase decision.

Yes and my DD is now 20 and at uni and when she comes home she always has a sleep over with her old friends. It was our house just before they dispersed end of summer and they’ll do one at Christmas. Not so many during secondary - usually just her bestie. My son it was more often who crashed after a bit too much partying! He didn’t particularly enjoy staying over at other houses and we had more room (dedicated games room with comfy sofa).
But not sure I’d be using it a reason to rule a house out.

Nope. Not a thing here (2 teenage boys).
DS2 is introverted, so no massive surprise there, but DS1 has mates everywhere, but no sleepovers.

Yes.

DS did, usually only one or two because that's all we could fit in.

My 14yo does, but we live in the middle of nowhere with no public transport so it's the only way he gets to spend long amounts of time with his friends outside school. Be prepared though for the midnight cheesecake making and 3am hide and seek!

One of my teenage boys DID have lots of sleepovers - until age 16 - the other never had any but did throw lots of garden parties in our tiny yard. Kids squash in and adapt to what is available. I would not base any house purchase on it, tbh.

And as others have said, not much sleep happens on sleepovers. They watch movies or play video games, so a large lounge/den with cushions on the floor will do!

DS1: No
DS2: Yes, up to the end of GCSEs - however despite having a spare room, him and his mate would cram into his tiny bedroom- they’d more or less stay up all night but if they needed some kip, the friend would sleep in the bed and DS2 would doze in his gaming chair 🤣

Agree with others that I wouldn’t factor it in to a house move. If there’s room for a sleeping bag on a floor somewhere then there’s room for a sleepover.

I think it will depend where their friends live. Most of my DC's friends live within a mile or two so they tend to go home even if it's very late. If it was a trek home, or involved a parent having to collect, then I could imagine sleepovers would be more likely.

I would expect whatever he is doing now in terms of sleepovers to continue for at least a year or 2 more though.

Our 13 year ds loves a sleepover, literally his favourite thing. However they just cram into his bedroom and love it wouldn’t worry about choosing a house round it.

I always thought it was a girl thing- none of my sons ever did (youngest is 11)

My boy (14) has 5 of them for a sleepover tomorrow! I have 3 older girls too and it has been no less for me for boys, in fact the number of them seems to be greater!! In the summer I had 8 of them in a tent in the garden, don’t think they got much sleep! I love it though!

God, the sleepovers. Around here, it's always in GROUPS. It's never just "Dave is coming over". It's Dave, and Andy, and Pete. And then they take over my lounge becuase they can't fit in DS' bedroom and they all bring their own play stations so they can play all night!

I have trained them that if they sleep on couches they MUST put sheets down first!

So yes, having a space for that is worthwhile, and ideally sufficient space that you can decamp if you need to - we have a small sitting area off the kitchen or we decamp to our bedroom!