Hosting a successful sleepover involves making guests feel welcome and comfortable, planning food and activities, explaining house rules, and setting clear start and end times. Involving the host child in preparations can help ensure a fun and memorable experience for all.
There is something about every child’s first sleepover that both parent and child will vividly remember for years to come. Whether it’s a historic birthday party or commemorating the last day of school, a sleepover can be a lot of fun for the host to plan and hopefully guests to attend. If you’re planning to host a sleepover, there are a few things you should handle as soon as the invitations go out.
One of the keys to a successful sleepover is making guests feel welcome and comfortable. The person who is planning to have a sleepover needs to keep his guests in mind. Prepare ahead by making sure your bathroom is equipped with the essentials. Also, decide how to create night lighting so your guests can find their way around. You should show younger guests where the bathroom is when they arrive and once more before bed. Remember that many, if not all, of your sleepover guests will never have been to your house, let alone stayed all night, and it’s not as familiar to them as it is to you.
In general, it’s a good idea to be clear about the start and end times of the party. You’ll find that in the morning most of your guests haven’t gotten as much sleep as they should, so too much time before you leave can lead to conflict and irritability. If the party has a clear start time, you can tour the house, clarify any house rules, and begin structured activities with all guests present. A clear end time the following morning, our advice is to screw up early, will ensure that the sleepover aftermath of cleaning and napping can be easily resolved.
When hosting a sleepover, planning should include what foods to serve, especially breakfast. It’s easy to plan your afternoon and evening menu. If you run out of ideas, opt for the standard pizza dinner, and perhaps dessert can be ice cream and cake. Breakfast, on the other hand, deserves special attention. Certainly not all guests will eat the same things for breakfast, and some may have dairy or other allergies. You might consider a cereal or two, bagels and French toast or waffles, along with milk and juice. Your guests will then have a variety to choose from and won’t go home hungry.
Activities to pass the sleepover time may or may not be necessary. It might be best to have a particularly solid but fun activity or two that can be brought in when the need arises, but for the most part, the point of a sleepover is for kids to “do their own thing” and feel relaxed. If things get awkward and the kids don’t seem to know what to do with the unstructured time, introduce one of the planned activities and see what happens. Usually, younger children will find plenty to keep themselves occupied, and older kids and teens don’t prefer any interference, but sometimes the teen crowd might need some direction.
Explaining the house rules is another key to success when hosting a sleepover. You don’t have to cover every little detail, but emphasize the rules of your house that may be different from others. For example, if juice and pop are only allowed in the kitchen, or if no one is allowed to eat or drink anything after a certain time, communicate these rules to your guests. Hearing them from the house authority gives credit to the rules and will make it easier on your child in the long run.
It’s no mean feat getting ready to host a sleepover. There is quite a bit of work to be done in preparation and hosting. One of the best things you can do is involve the host child in the preparations. Remember, some guests may be nervous about attending, but your child may be nervous about the hospitality. Helping him get ready to host a sleepover will help ensure it’s a big hit.
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