Monday, April 4, 2011

The Sleepover

Since starting pre-school back in the Fall, Lukas has occasionally received invitations to do sleepovers at the homes of other 3-year-olds in his class.

 I'm pretty sure these invitations were not initiated with the approval of the other kids parents.  That's because, let's face it, 3-year-olds are not prime candidates to be comfortable, let alone fall asleep, in a foreign environment with the lights out.

Mrs. LIAYF and I would tactfully explain to Lukas each time he would relay one of these invitations to us, that he would have to wait "Until he was older" to have a sleepover with any of his little buddies.

Well, that all changed Saturday night as we were hosting our visiting friends, who used to live nearby and whose 3 year old son is also one of our sons best friends.  We only had one spare bedroom, so we decided to let both boys sleep in Lukas' room.  We told Lukas that he was finally going to get to do a sleepover.  He was pretty excited about it.

By the time we had met up with our friends, had dinner and playtime, finished up movie night for the boys and got them ready for bed, it was nearly 10:00 and both boys were a bit wound up as we laid them both down in sleeping bags on Lukas' bedroom floor.  We told them to be quiet and try to go to sleep.  We didn't have high expectations.

Our low expectations were well founded, because no sooner than we had reached the bottom of the stairs, than the thumping started from the room.  After giving them a few minutes to goof around together while we chatted, Mrs. LIAYF and the other mother went up to tell them to go to sleep, with his friends mother ultimately laying down with her son to help him go to sleep. 

When the mother came down she smiled as she let us know how sweet Lukas had been.  Apparently he had rubbed the back of his friend, telling him that "It's okay, if any monsters come they will all be friendly." and "If you get scared of the dark I can grab my tiger flashlight to turn on", echoing some of the things that Mrs. LIAYF tells him before leaving the room each night.

But as we were all smiling about that story, the door once again opened upstairs. It was Lukas.  It was also my turn to go talk to him about going to sleep.   "He's really asleep!" Lukas exclaimed as I entered the room, looking over at his friend as I laid him back down.  He then leaned over and kissed his buddy, who didn't move an inch, on the forehead before turning to me with his hands outstretched and palms up.

"See?!" 

"Yeah, he sure is" I said as I hugged and tucked my little guy back into his covers.  And with that it wasn't long before Lukas finally drifted off to sleep, which both boys did until 6:30 the next morning.

We all could have used more sleep, but  realistically that was as good an outcome as we could have hoped for from his first ever sleepover.

So tell me.  At what age did your kids start having sleep overs?

10 comments:

Diplo_Daddy said...

Sleepovers at that age won’t happen. That’s far too early. And besides, Christopher wouldn’t like being left alone. I admire you for taking a stand.

OneZenMom said...

We've had several "sleepovers" - of a sort. We have good friends who live out of town and when we visit each other, we often have "family" sleepovers similar to what you describe. We even had a three-family weekend one time where 4 boys (all under 6) slept together in a big pile of sleeping bags in the living room. I've honestly been quite pleasantly surprised at how well these types of sleepovers have gone every time. There's been relatively little fuss. Then again, on these types of trips, we generally do our darndest to wear the kids out well before their usual bedtime! Maybe that's the trick. :)

I don't think I'm in any hurry, though, for the more traditional sleepover of having my child stay the night with another family all by himself - though I might be a little less apprehensive about a sleepover at my own house. But, overall, I'm in no hurry for that particular milestone. :)

Homemaker Man said...

We're considering letting the kids sleep over their "Aunties' (much older cousins) house this summer, but the subject of friend sleepovers has been broached only once, and we dealt with it prety muh the same way you guys did. Lukas sounds like a sweetie pie.

James (SeattleDad) said...

@Dipplo - Yeah, I agree. But this was an interesting chance to test the waters with a kid his age he knew, and whose parents were there as well.

@Zen Mom - We were pleasantly surprised as well, but won't be ready for the traditional kind for years to come.

@Homemaker Man - Yeah, he is. Cousins would be a good way to test the waters. Thanks for the comment.

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Steve said...

When Oliver was 4 and Lucy 2, they had a sleepover with friends the same age while Hayley and I had a night away (the night I proposed to her). I doubt Lucy would have gone without her brother though. I know Oliver had one at around the same age but can't really remember exactly when.

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Captain Dumbass said...

I can barely get my kids to sleep in the same room let alone throwing a friend into the mix, and did the guy before me serioulsy just post his URL and no comment? That's some lazy assed spam.

kirida said...

My four-year-old has only had sleepovers with his four-year-old cousin and they wind each other up so it's so difficult to get them to go to sleep. Usually I let them run around as long as they can and eventually, they just crash out. They get so tired, I don't have to run to their aid during the night because of monsters, bad dreams or drink requests, so we all win.

Mrs. M said...

Hannah keeps asking but I think it will be another year or two before we relent (6 or 7?).