-because I'm pretty sure Will and Ed have no desire to call Kacy on the phone, and because I know they don't care about having Kacy over for sleepovers.
-Please tell me what the rule is in your house regarding phone calls and sleepovers. She just got off the bus and is eating a snack. Already I have had to tell Kacy (today!) that she needed to be 8 years old before she had a sleepover, and that I have to meet the parents first. I don't know why "8", except by then she'll be older. Good logic, eh? And for social phone calls?
(Maybe I'll tell her to give out my cell phone number. It's long distance and I don't get reception at home. Am I evil, or what? I wonder if Ryan can run a background check. I think it's against policy/unethical though, so that's a no-go. Ah! I'll make HIM go meet the parents, on his way to work, so he'll be all in uniform with a gun and patrol car. Good, honest people will not be intimidated. Shady people will, though. It's perfect!) I'm not ready for this yet. Girls! Aack!
Funny! My girls started having sleepovers when they were young. 4 or 5 ish? Even my kindergarten boy has had a sleepover before. But I will say that any sleepover they have had has either been at our house or at the house of someone I was friends with before our kids even wanted to have sleepovers! I am not good with letting my kids go to people's houses I am not sure of. If I had a husband with the opportunity to do background checks, I'd probably take advantage of it. Unethical or not! LOL And then I'd probably still think of an excuse for them not to go. Am I to narrowminded? Or just overly cautious?? I don't know but I am how I am! As for the phone thing, I've been lucky. My girls
ReplyDelete(13 and 8) are not big phone people. Except, Ali does call Tayah EVERY morning to see if she is having hot or cold lunch! Good luck with the girl thing!
I don't let my kids go to their friend's house to stay the night, probably never will. They can go to family but I just don't feel comfortable with my kids staying the night anywhere. We have had sleep overs here though. I have a friend whose kids always want to stay with me so for a while it was almost every weekend. I feel like my house is safe and how well do I really know the other people. You just never know. So, my house is the "FUN" house. The kids on the block all migrate here and I like it that way. I'd rather have 15 kids at my house under my watch than down the street and not knowing what's going on.
ReplyDeleteAs for phone calls. Alexis started that last year. It's funny to me. Like what do they really have to talk about, they just saw each other at school. I set a 5 minute limit. My kids can't play or talk until their homework and chores are done too. Good Luck!
I felt like everything changed when Alexis started school.
I plan to have the "fun" house too, except that I don't have a house yet, AND I live miles from people. MILES from children. The closest elementary student lives 7 miles away. We have one jr high girl 2 1/2 miles away... I though sleep overs would not be an issue.
ReplyDeleteI am super wary of sleepovers. I just don't like them so my kids aren't allowed. This parenting stuff is tough isn't it?
ReplyDeleteGracie has had a couple girls in her class want to call her. We let them call but Gracie is not too interested - it maybe lasted 3 minutes. If she gets interested, I think I will give her a five minute limit like I had growing up. We also had sleepover limits - once a month. It was enough.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin had a good idea of an unsleep-over. The kids come over dressed in pjs in the evening and eat, play, watch movie, whatever and then they have to leave when its time to actually go to bed. I thought it sounded fun. I don't like the idea of Gracie staying with anyone other than family.
Sleepovers... it is a little different when they get a bit older and have the same friends for a long time. I always get to know the family really good. Although if Ryan wants to retire I'm sure we could just pay him to do background checks and random drug tests. Even more when they start dating. AAARRGGG!! We don't do a lot of sleepovers, it's just a pain and I worry. Alex and Jimi both just got into the phone thing, but they don't talk on it. It's all about texting, and since you have no service you have no problem.
ReplyDeleteMy boys can only spend the night with family or people I have met and feel like I know, of course that doesn't always work out well. Age wise it depends on the kid, Zachary was 7, Ryan was 10 the first time they spent the night with a friend. My newest rule (because we have to adapt as they get older) is no spending the night anywhere there are teenage sisters. The phone thing... I've already eaten my words on that a couple times so now we have cell phones and they don't tie up my house line. I have to check their phones and read texts so I know who they are talking to and some of what they are talking about. But you still have some time before you get to that point, so a time limit and giving your number to a couple of her really good friends is probably fine. Especially after a background check!! Being the "FUN" house is great as long as you can handle it.
ReplyDeleteI say sleepovers at family only. I like Jill's idea of the un-sleepover. There really isn't anything you can't do before you go home.
ReplyDeleteNathan hasn't asked, but I wouldn't let him talk on the phone. I had a little girl last year ask me for our number and I told her Nathan couldn't talk to girls on the phone until he was 16. :) They have plenty of time at recess to talk.
When Nathan had a little friend ask if he could come over and play in K. I was nervous, but I just felt very good about the dad who was in charge. I only let him stay an hour the first time. It worked up to 1.5 hours rotating between there house and ours. I could tell that was about the time when they started to get on each others nerves. The problem with always have the friends at your house is the other parents sometimes can take it the wrong way, like "what, I'm not good enough to have your kid over?" I think everything in moderation.
Boys are different than girls about this stuff though.
We don't do many sleep over's here either. K can go to 2 friends and sleep over because I know the families REALLY well. I always worry about older, opposite sex siblings having a sleep over at the same time. That makes me nervous because you don't know where THOSE kids are coming from. Just be cautious, let your mother's intuition guide you. We have a lot of those "un-sleepovers" but we call them "late nights". The pain with those is you have to go and pick them up at 10:00 and sometimes I'm already asleep.
ReplyDeletePhone calls are another thing. K loves to talk on the phone and really they talk about nothing most of the time anyway so if that's her social interaction it's fine with me. She's not getting a cell phone and she doesn't text message!