The S Word
I was hoping we’d breeze right through the pre-K years with no peer pressure to speak of.
However, Caitlin has a new favorite word that begins with S…sleepover…to which I respond by that tried and true parenting jewel that I thought I’d never utter: “Not until you are older!”
Ahhhh…shades of Leave it to Beaver.
I believe the instigator is a certain older classmate at daycare who wears tights and headbands, clearly a troublemaker, who just turned 5 and celebrated with a coveted sleepover.
Now Caitlin’s 5th birthday party plans are getting more involved than I’ve ever dreamed what with the requests for a swim party, Bon Jovi, sleepover, although I think we’ve set the bar a little more realistic with potential plans for a party at our local playground. At this rate, though, I’m concerned that she’ll want a learjet to Paris when she turns 13.
But seriously, a sleepover at 4 or 5? I think I was around 9 before I could either spend the night with a friend or vice versa. Now our next door neighbor’s 6-year-old daughter and Caitlin are good friends and I could see them having a sleepover at some point in the near future but I’d like to put that off for as long as possible. It just screams of “staying up all night watching Barbie flicks, speed eating Cheetos, and calling mommy and daddy at 2 a.m. homesick.” I mean minus the getting homesick at 2 a.m., that’s a typical Friday night at our house. Why in the world does she want to invite a friend to share in that madness?
I know you parents of tweens and teens are laughing at me. I know some day we’ll be bombarded with requests for belly rings and cell phones and I’ll miss the “Mommy I want to have a sleepover!” days. In the meantime I’ve got to figure out a way to make sleepovers seem uncool. I wonder if there’s a special after school intervention episode of Dora that deals with this topic.
