Ds is in year 7 and will turn 12 in a few weeks. Since starting senior school there seems to be a lot of sleepovers happening with new friends and I've noticed these are mostly organised by the kids and often the parents don't know the other parents, haven't spoken to them and don't always know where they live.
I get that this is par for the course and I did much the same in teenage years (maybe that's why I'm reluctant - I remember what we'd get up to!) but I still feel a bit uneasy about it.
Ds isn't overly bothered about attending or having friends sleep here. He's happy going out and seeing friends or having them back to ours for a few hours but hasn't expressed much desire to sleep out or have friends stay over. I'm grateful in a way as I have two younger kids (one a toddler) and two very old dogs who would all be disturbed by a room of loud teenage boys. But equally I wonder if I should be facilitating this more.
If im truly honest the idea of having my house full of rowdy lads overnight isn't appealing but I don't want ds to miss out when the time comes and he wants people over.
What are your thoughts? Do you have them? Do you allow your pre teens to sleep out without much info on the parents? I know some parents who are really chilled about it and others (like myself) who just want to hold off until the kids are a bit older.