Sleepovers

As a parent, we are in need of making decisions for our children daily.  The topic of sleepovers is one of those decisions that is weighing on my heart heavily.  My oldest son is extremely upset with me that I did not allow him to spend the night at a birthday party this weekend.  We opted to pick him up at 11pm instead.  When Jeff went to pick him up the other boys were teasing Braydon...sigh :(  Once Braydon got home, he immediately went to the bathroom and shed some tears.  He then spent his last awake moments feeling anger toward me and sadness that he couldn't stay with his friends...he cried himself to sleep.  My heart was hurting...truly hurting!

So, this has me thinking about what our family rule should be about sleepovers... We've never had a rule about this...it has always just been a judgment call.  We've had a situation in the past where a sleepover turned extremely bad...rocked my world as a parent.  And yes, friends, this was a good friend of mine...NOT someone that I didn't know!  I can't caution you enough about sleepovers!  As I reflect on my own sleepovers as a child...there is one sleepover that has left an image in my head, even all these years later!!!  After some discussions with my hubby and the tug on my heart that I feel the Lord has placed, we have decided no more sleepovers for the Hathaway kids unless it is with family....ugh...there, I said it...this is SO hard for me to say and will be harder to follow through with but I believe this has been placed on my heart for a reason.

I've had a lot of discussion about this with many friends and family lately.  Yes, I know that I can't keep my children living in a bubble...but I do make them wear seatbelts for safety, I do make them wear bike helmets for safety, I do make them wear shinguards at soccer for safety...therefore, I'm just arming them for safety... It is going to be a difficult change for our family but I believe that it will become easier in time.  My kids hop in the van and put on their seatbelts out of habit...I'm hoping that at some point it will be easier for my kids to just say, "nope, we don't do sleepovers."  Lord, please make this decision lighter on my kid's hearts.