November Thankful #19

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm doing daily thankful posts. I'd love it if you'd join me by commenting here or on MichiGal's Facebook page.

November 19

Today I am thankful for sleepovers. Whether away from home or at home with friends, sleepovers are a childhood rite of passage. I spent many happy nights away from home as a child, and many with friends or cousins staying over at my house. And now I get to see my kids have the same kind of fun. 

My first sleepovers were with my cousins and my grandparents. I lived with my grandparents off and on throughout my childhood, but when I wasn't living with them I would often sleep over, sometimes alone and sometimes with a cousin or three. I also spent many, many nights at my aunts' and uncles' houses having pajama parties with my cousins. As I got older, I started having sleepovers with friends. I first specifically remember sleeping over at a friend's house in third grade. Once I hit fourth and fifth grades and beyond, a sleepover seemed to happen just about every weekend.  

Sleeping over at friends' houses gave me a glimpse into how other families lived. I was given the chance to try things differently and fully understand that not everyone lived exactly as I did. I experienced, a tiny bit, what it was like to have two parents and brothers and sisters. Plus, there is something gained in friendship with spending an extended period of time together, late night giggles, having dinner together and then waking up and having breakfast together too. Of course there are more opportunities for arguments too, but then you're forced to learn conflict resolution with friends as well. Being away from home overnight also helps kids learn a certain level of independence.

All of my kids participate in sleepover fun at some level. Mathilda is so far limited to spending the night at my in-law's, but the the other three have all had lots of sleeping over experience with friends as well as with grandparents. From a parent's perspective, when my kids are away from home it gives Chris and I a little break. Even just being down one kid makes a huge difference in the noise and general mayhem level around here. Then the kids at home have a chance to get a little extra attention from mom and dad. When we do the hosting, we have the pleasure of getting to know our kids' friends more than we normally would. What an awesome opportunity that is, because as parents we need to make a concerted effort to know who our kids hang out with, and what kind of people they are. As they get older, this is going to become more and more important. So I will relinquish a little control and let someone else look after my kids once in awhile. And I will sacrifice a little sleep and put up with a higher than normal noise level (is that even possible??) every so often. It's all worth it, because when my kids grow up their sleepover memories will some of their best.