Teen Sleepover
If you allow teen sleepovers, you might even find yourself playing the role of the host parent and wondering what you can do to make sure the night goes smoothly. In either scenario, following the eight key rules below can help put your mind at ease and keep your teenager safe all night long.
teen sleepover
A delicious snack board packed with savoury and sweet treats will always go down well with teens. Canvas your own teen for ideas of what they and their friends might like included. Here are some ideas to get you started:
You might have a bunch of teens who will sit and watch movies back to back, or you might have a bunch of teens who will appreciate having movies on loop in the background as they chatter and hang out.
If you have a bunch of teen girls who love a TikTok makeup tutorial, you could line up a playlist of great makeup tutorials by some of the most popular beauty influencers and set them free with a box of makeup to follow.
Use a Nintendo Switch or Play Station to set up karaoke for the sleepover crew. You can buy wifi microphones relatively cheaply that are compatible with both. You can either download or purchase karaoke games.
Bring mattresses down from beds, or use sofa cushions or camping pads. Airbeds are brilliant to have on standby for extra sleepover beds. Provide as many blankets, duvets, pillows and throws as you can muster.
While it is essential to be aware of what is happening at the sleepover, do resist the temptation to keep popping in. Part of the joy of a teen sleepover is the feeling of being grown up and left to their own devices.
Since teen sleepovers are about staying up late, it is best to start them early in the evening. This way, everyone has time to get settled and have some fun before they settle down for either sleep or a quieter time.
However, if you want to give out party favours, consider putting together a sleepover pack with a face mask, sleep mask, hair scrunchy and novelty toothpaste. Or take a look at my big list of 58 party favour ideas for teens.
It can also be a wonderful keepsake that your friends can take back with them. Just think of how amazing it will be to find these pillowcases a decade or two from now and remember all those sweet weekend sleepovers with the girls!
If you want to switch things up a little at your sleepover, though, how about you tune into a teen podcast. You can listen to an episode or two of some fabulous teen stories, anecdotes, advice and tips, some tutorials, and the likes.
And what better place to do it than at a sleepover to mark the end of summer? You and your friends can put your heads together and come up with two kinds of list: one individual bucket list and one for all of you to do as a group.
Teens look forward to having a fun time with friends at sleepovers. And, sleepover games and activities for teens can entertain and help them spend quality time with friends. Since they are not allowed to enter a pub or drink, house parties and sleepovers with friends would help them unwind and have fun with their gang.
There is no fixed time to have sleepovers with your friends or cousins. Rules ruin the fun. However, sleepovers can start anytime in the evening and can go on until the following day or afternoon. So stock up on snacks and plan for some entertaining games well in advance.
Parents may find sleepovers with children of the opposite gender difficult, but there is little to worry about if there is trust and open discussion about the relationships that children have with their peers. You may have some boundaries that your children must obey, such as not closing the door or sneaking out, but allowing boys and girls to have sleepovers together can broaden their perspective on socializing.
An Oklahoma Democratic congressional candidate is under fire for allegedly verbally attacking several pre-teen girls while at the home of a friend who was hosting a sleepover with multiple middle school girls present.
Each generation of teens grows up with their own well-loved high school movies. Share your own from your high school days and help your teen to find these movies from generations past that they should watch with their friends.
One of my favorite things to do with your best friend at a sleepover? Is to plan a senior week trip together. When I was a senior, we planned a one-week trip to a house on a beach in Delaware. Really great time!
I've gotten many eye rolls as teenagers are handing their phones over to me, and my kids are embarrassed about my rule but that's the way it is in my household. I've waited a long time to make and enforce rules, I am very good at it, and I'm not going to waste an opportunity to use my authority to humiliate my kids in front of their peers.
I became the gatekeeper of cellphones after allowing my teens and their friends to have them during a sleepover once. I have always taken my kids' phone away at 9 pm, and when they asked if they could keep them longer since they were having friends over, I truly thought their phones would be left in the dust and they would be so engrossed with each other they'd wouldn't even want those darn phones.
The exact opposite happened. After checking in on them at midnight, every head was bowed into a device, which was ridiculous. They weren't talking or bonding, which is the whole point of a sleepover. That was it for me.
I realize we want our teenagers to start making their own decisions, learning from mistakes and figuring out what feels healthy to them. But I think in this day and age where cellphone usage is so prevalent, many teenagers are depending on them as their sole source of communication and bonding and are feeling lost without them for fear they are missing something online.
We've got loads of sleepover activity ideas below, from things to do at smaller sleepovers with 2-4 kids, to ideas for larger groups. There are activities that are perfect for teens and preteens, and ideas for younger kids, too.
The whole point of a sleepover is sharing secrets and staying up late without any adults watching over you. Try to resist checking in every five minutes and just let the kids know you're there if they need you.
Alternatively, there are lots of party companies offering sleepover parties for kids. You can hire teepees, decorations, airbeds and everything you need for the ultimate slumber party with themes ranging from army camps to unicorns.
If your child and their friends love video games, then a sleepover gaming tournament will go down a treat. Just make sure you have enough controllers and a big screen so those who aren't playing at any time can still watch the action.
Cupcakes are a great sleepover snack and decorating them can be a fun activity in itself. Gather a selection of different coloured icing, sweets, sprinkles and edible glitter and let the kids go wild.
If you're looking for a fun and crafty sleepover activity, try making some bath bombs. They're surprisingly easy to make (we'd recommend it for kids aged eight and above) and your guests will have something nice to take home with them, too.
The morning after the sleepover your guests will probably want to have a debrief. So cook them up something special like a big batch of pancakes and let them have a natter about what happened the night before.
You're super stoked about tonight's sleepover, but what on earth should you pack? Don't worry, we've got you covered! Check out our handy packing list for a breakdown of overnight essentials you can toss into your bag before you go. We'll include some fun, non-essential stuff, too. 041b061a72