To keep my three nephews up all night?

[Upfiner]

I am having my three nephews over for a sleepover. They’re six, just turned two and five months. The eldest has slept over a few times but not the younger two.

Instead of wrestling them into bed I am planning to let them stay up as late as they like. I’ve always done this with the eldest and he loves it and usually falls asleep at about 10:30pm. I’ll obvious have the baby in his crib but I’ve got a huge corner sofa so I’m going to bring the duvets down and we can just have a slumber party downstairs.

I told my friend who has two sons and she thinks that this will impact their whole week and their schooling and routine and probably exam results and future careers.

I’m not going mad am I? This is fine for one fun evening?

Strange and uncaring mother here <waves>

I’m 40 and remember sleepovers as a small child with my cousins at my auntie’s so these instances of parents leaving children with family members overnight are at least 350 years old.

My little granddaughters LOVE a sleepover, whether at Grandma's or at their fun aunties'. The whole point of sleepovers is the fun and it being a different kind of bedtime. And it builds that kind of warmth, comfort and security that means that if there's ever an emergency of some kind, they have another house, another bedroom, and another person who loves them, where they can go while their parents deal with whatever.

One of the pleasures I get as grandma, is not just watching one daughter grow into being a mum, but also watching the relationship between the grandkids and my other, child free, daughter. They absolutely adore her, and she always makes sleepovers special for them in some way (I'm too tired to let them stay up late when they're at mine 😅)

So go for it, @Upfiner , you'll all have a great time.

My God, so much judgement on here. Some people are so uptight about bed time routines, "Johnny will be tired all day if he does not go to bed at 7pm". And then complain Johnny is up at 5am on weekend - well, maybe try getting him to bed a bit later?

This is ridiculous. Have a look how kids are brought up in Italy, Spain or Portugal - or Eastern Europe. There is no insanely early bedtimes, kids go to bed at 9pm earliest. Very often they go along to parties with their parents, stay up until they fall asleep on a couple of chairs to be carried home at 3am )) No one ever dies from this, believe me.

I would be more worried looking after three small children by myself, especially a five month old!

We used to do this every Saturday night when our kids were young, it was just “movie night”. They’d stay up late watching a movie then pass out on the sofa and we’d carry them up to bed. It had absolutely no impact whatsoever on their routines the rest of the week.

Mine are fine. They just sleep in a bit.

I'm sure that if OP's niblings are horrific the next day, their mum wouldn't keep letting her have them for sleepovers

🤣🤣🤣

Look at the wider picture.

My mum for example ,would always prefer to have my child at her own house than sit in at mine , so she would always offer to have him stay at hers. My son adores his nan and loves staying over. I bet the eldest loves having a little sleepover at his aunties.

I used to stay overnight with my nana. Most likely my parents went for a night out while I was there. Can't see any big deal

If my DC stayed up late he would simple sleep longer the next day. I have no idea why children would be "monstrous and tired" if going to bed late - unless you deliberately wake them up early, not allowing them to have enough sleep?

The eldest just seems to sleep in later. Didn’t wake up till 9:30am last time.

I think you sound great 👍 a fun Aunt.they will remember you for years to come! U are doing Their parents a huge favour with 3 to babysit.i should ignore nay sayers here .and enjoy yourself. Best not to put baby on the sofa though

He had his stuff packed at 8am last time. I wasn’t picking him up till 2pm 😂.

I think this all hinges on the temperament of the two year-old. You'd be absolutely fine with baby and 6 year-old. (Guidance for baby to be sleeping in same room as an adult is one year so I agree with you on that one.)

My younger one aged two would have stubbornly resisted sleep, gone overtired hyper and silly and run around everywhere emptying boxes etc then crashed out late - it just wouldn't have been pleasant or cozy, and I can see why your friend might think it might affect the next day. I'd say 4, 6 and 10 would be more fun ages for it.

Parents are happy, you have a 'cool' plan.
What are you asking for here other than validation of your quirky babysitting plans.
🙄

Thanks.

As I said in the OP, the baby will be in his crib (or on my knee).

Not exactly witty nor insightful so why repeat yourself?

I don’t think my sister will put her night out off that long.

The two year old would be annoyed and know what was happening if I tried putting him to bed whilst the rest of us stayed downstairs. He’ll love copying his brother sitting in the sofa in front of the tv. He’ll fall asleep like that.

This is a chat forum. Hope that helps.

Some of these responses are mad. I can’t get a single family member to take my 3 and 5 year olds for even an hour so frankly you are a total hero and I hope your sister appreciates you for doing this! Absolutely do whatever you want - it’s one night and you’ll be known as the coolest auntie ever to those boys. Have fun.

And yet it is also somehow perfectly normal for a lot of people. Wait till you hear that I used to spend three months living with my grandparents abroad every summer since the age of two. Or that my aunt had her grandson overnight for the first time when he was two months old. It's called being a family.
What doesn't seem normal to me is the "I have never spent a night away from my baby" when the "baby" is 14 years old. Yet, it is also normal for a lot of people.
So can we just agree that while you consider it uncaring in your specific situation, for others this would be a perfect example of the metaphorical village where everyone is caring.

Fair enough. If two year-old is easygoing and will just crash that's good news for everyone.

So what if some people spend a night out? Good for them for having a life. I wish I had a sister nearby who could have babysat mine when they were young, but no such luck.

Surely times like this are Auntie’s rules? My 6 y/o would love it! And my 2 y/o would probably be more upset if the bedtime routine was attempted!! Sounds fun!

That’s what I think - he’ll get worked up if I try to put him to bed when he knows his two brothers and I are downstairs.