Raising Concord
Raising Concord: Our First Sleepover
Sleepovers are a rite of passage for kids and sometimes even for Moms.
I was not prepared for the birthday invitation my 6-year-old daughter got about a month ago. I was thinking the usual bouncy house, gymnastics, bowling or pool party for the cool first-graders, but then I saw the words "sleep" and "over," and my heart sank. Decades of repressed sleepover disaster memories came flooding back. I sat back in my chair, reread the invitation and immediately wondered how and if this would work. Maybe we would be out of town. Maybe my daughter wouldn’t want to go. Or, maybe, there would be a hurricane and the whole stress inducing, bad childhood memory-making day would disappear. Then I decided to let my daughter decide and put my ridiculous, overblown (because I had some excellent sleepovers) memories behind me…
