My daughter had her first sleepover in 1st grade. My son just finished 1st grade and hasn't slept over anywhere yet. Around here the boys don't seem to be as into it as the girls.
With us it depends on what friend as to what guidelines we set up. My daughter has one friend whose mom insists she be asleep by 11pm. When she spends the night we abide by her wishes and make sure the girls get to sleep. With some of the other girls we let them stay up as late as they want, not worrying about how much sleep they get. Their parents are fine with it. They usually crash by 1am though.
Someone mentioned that the kids will occupy themselves during a sleepover. I wish that were the case here. I don't know if it is because I know all of my kids' friends well or what, but when one of their friends is here the kids spend more time trying to get my attention than playing with one another. Sleepovers wear me out for that reason.
We tried a few weekends ago to let the kids sleep out in the tent in the back yard. Our yard is fenced on 3 sides with a tall privacy fence and the 4th side butts up against a neighbor's yard. The neighbor has a big dog with a mean bark that is always outside and always on alert. The neighbor is also extended family who keeps an eye out for us. He has a tall fence (though it is chain link) and no one gets near our yard. We also have a super quiet neighborhood. Anyway, the kids didn't last all night. They were soooo noisy that I finally made them come in. I kept going out and telling them to keep it down. We have a 90 year old neighbor who needs to sleep! LOL So, for us it wasn't the safety, it was just that the kids couldn't be out there and settle down enough to sleep. I had 4 of them ages 12 to 7 out there. My plan was to sleep with the upstairs door open and then I could peek around the corner off the balcony and see them (and definitely hear anything going on). We might try again when the 7 year old is older as he was the loudest of the bunch.
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