This weekend, my daughter hosted her first sleepover and yes, I survived but barely. Although my daughter has been on countless sleepovers, I, somehow dodged that bullet. Well, no more.
Last week, My friend M (another single mom), had to have knee surgery leaving her scrambling for people to host her twin 6 year old daughters. That’s right, not one girl but two girls for a sleepover. Of course, I was happy to oblige given that she has hosted my daughter on several sleepovers when I have to travel on business.
The girls came over Friday night after being fed by M’s nanny. Yeah, one less thing to do. They literally played in every room in my little one bedroom even the closets. They were having so much fun that they did not want to watch my planned movie Wall-E until 9 p.m.
Wondering what time they finally fell asleep, 12:30, yes, 12:30 a.m. Keep your judgemental comments to yourself.
Can you imagine what they will be like when they are teenagers? Let’s live in denial a few years longer, shall we.
I had hoped they would sleep in. Ha, jokes on me, they woke up at 8 a.m. and surprise, they were hungry. After trying to figure out what the three girls wanted, they ended up with a football player’s breakfast, bagels, waffles, eggs and bacon.
I had grand plans to go to the playground and read the paper but they wanted to take a bubble bath at 9 am, so why not? Good thing, I did not throw out all the bath toys. They happily played for literally an hour. I just thought it was funny, the goofy conversations about their little animal car wash. Needless to say my bathroom look like it does when you obnoxiously throw all your towels in a hotel bathroom knowing the maid will pick them up unfortunately, I am the maid here, with no thanks or a tip. We did finally get to the playground at 1 p.m. then it was time for lunch and the return home.
Here are my four tips that I learned on our sleepover because there will be more.
1. Don’t bother organizing or cleaning your child’s room before the sleepover – I made the mistake of spending 3 hours cleaning my apartment before the twins came over. Don’t do this!!. Even though, I laid down the ground rules; “put back the toys before opening/taking out more”, the room is a disaster. I am going to have to clean and organize my daughter’s room all over again.
2. Start your nighttime activity early so that it ends at a reasonable hour – Although I had a movie taped, I made the mistake of starting it at 9 p.m. instead of 8p.m. The movie ended at 11. And you know how long the bedtime routine is with your own children so compounded times three, you get the picture which is why they ended in bed at 11:45 p.m and asleep at 12:30 a.m.
3. Be flexible – Trying to be on schedule and do as you normally would sounds like a good idea but it’s not worth worrying about or losing sleep over. I had grand plans to go to my daughter’s swimming lesson but it was crazy to think that we could all get out of the house by 8:30 am.
4. Have a timer on hand – If you have more than one child than you are used negotiating amongst siblings but having three girls who all want the “pink cup” or having enough clipboards for their “playing office” game was a challenge. Having a timer or using the timer on your iPhone comes in handy when the girls have to take turns. Save yourself from getting gray hairs and institute it early. Let the timer be the bad guy.
If you have any tips, I would love to hear your suggestions for my next hosted sleepover. Now I am going to spend the rest of the week cleaning and getting some rest. Yeah, right.
