Parents, do you permit your child to have or attend sleepovers/slumber parties?

I let my kids go. I have to know the parents but slumber parties are a part of life.

If she wants to go just take her and hang around. I'm sure they are expecting at least a few parents to stay since the kids are still small. My son stayed alone when he was 4 ( it was a party in the friends house and the parents told me I could leave him and he didnt object, it was only an hour long party anyways and we lived 2 blocks away) then he also went to a party at chuckie cheeses at 7 y old, I stayed the whole time. You cant trust a few strangers to make sure that no sicko grabs your kid out of a sea of a hundred or so kids.. So it depends where the party is held. If at home, I usually hang around for a while, go and then come back little before the thing is over unless I'm friends with the mom, then I stay the whole time. If outside in a playarea etc I usually stay for safety reasons.

I grew up in the 80's too and I remember there were alot of slumber parties from grade school to HS. And I've also noticed with my daughter there just isn't really any true slumber parties. She gets invited to spend the night one on one, but only by 3 different friends. And one I won't let her go to cuz I don't know the father and he lives in another town. I think she's only been to one true slumber party. But she quite often spends the night at her best friends, sometimes 2 nights in a row. I know the Mom well so I totally trust the situation.

So yes I let her, but only if I know the family/parents of course.

The one time I let her spend the night at a new girl's house, I met her Mom and asked questions like is it only going to be the Mom here? Apparently she was single. Well when I went to drop her off there was a man there, the Mom's bf, who wouldn't even shake my husband's hand. We relunctly let her stay and we went out for the first time in a long time. It bothered us for the 2 hours after and we tend to be over protective parents, so we sometimes just say we gotta let go and let her do this. Well, we wound up getting a call from our daughter sayin she wasn't feeling well and we ran out of there so fast to go and get her and felt so bad that we left her there in the first place. I dunno why i'm telling this story haha but I guess just to say this is one of the reasons why I dont let her stay with very many ppl.

My daughter is only 6, so the current answer is "NO!". But I will as she gets older and I get to know her friends' parents better. I think an occasional night with friends / away from your parents is good for a kid. Let them get into a *little* mischief (like giggling at each other until an hour after bed time) so they don't feel smothered and do something drastic the first time you let them out of the house at 18! Plus it builds memories they will cherish for a lifetime.

I know, bad things happen. This is why I will wait until I know the family my kid will be with fairly well. But you can't spend your time on Earth hiding from life. If you did - what would be the point?

my three kids 10, 9 & 7 just had the ultimate sleep over this past weekend. We had about 50 or so people at our house, and 9 boys and 3 girls ended up sleeping over. Whew, it will be along time until that happens again-I am still washing blankets and pillows. I have 2 boys and 1 daughter so of course the boys stayed on the first floor and my daughter and her buddies stayed upstairs. My kids do not stay over at others houses. We have the "cool" house I guess so the children always wind up here.

EDIT* reading through the other answers I realize myself I am concerned over where my kids would stay (that is why they stay home) I know many undesirable things that some parents do themselves and allow their kids to do. The kids who stay at my house I know the parents well from youth sports.

I just have concerns because there's so many lunatics out here. The mother boyfriend/ husband might be some child molesters, etc. amongst other things that concern me about sleepover overs. So many things have change since I was growing up in the 80s. And I can understand if the parent have same reservations about sleep over at my house that's there baby and its expected. If my daughter have a sleepover we will have it at a hotel, therefore my husband will not be around. No brothers, uncles, etc it will be strictly and all girl party with no men around, so there won't be no confusion or drama.

I agree, i think that letting children go to sleepovers, providing they are old enough to cope with it, it is same sex and they will be supervised by responsible parents then i don't see why it is a problem.

Saying that they 'were too old for it' is a bit peculiar. Plenty of teenagers go to sleepovers at their friends houses, its usually the issues of people being too young to cope (many children get homesick) which puts some parenst off.

I don't know, I didn't grow up too long ago, and I remember plenty of sleepovers/slumber parties... as long as our parents knew the parents who were hosting it, it was all cool... we tended to kick teenager brothers and older males out of the house, but we'd let younger brothers stay (and try to convince them to let us dress them up or paint their nails, which resulted in them hiding in their rooms for the rest of the night and staying off our backs).

My mom was always convinced that I was lieing to her about the parental supervision, or that the parents were going to give us alcohol or we were gonna sneak out and get in trouble. I was only allowed to spend the night with the children of my mom's adult friends. Too bad none of them liked me.

There has to be a balance between restriction and freedom. I think the best route is to talk to the parents, get their names and numbers and let the child go. It would be super embarrassing for your children, but if you have doubts, show up and check things out for yourself (but remember to bring something with you that your child "forgot").

okay so im not a parent... only 20.. but when i went to sleep overs when i was in highschool i would go to the houses that would allow their kids to stay out later than i was aloud.. so i would be technicaly breaking the rules but it was without my parents knowing..... anyways.... if you dont feel comfotable letting you child sleep over at other kids houses.. than instead let your child invite people over to your house so that she can still have fun with sleepovers but they will always be at your house, so in the end you will know what your child is doing and you will be in control. maybe ONCE IN A WHILE let her go out to a sleep over but make sure you are 100% comfortable with the parents....