How Many Children Should You Allow To Stay At A Sleepover? [VIDEO]

Sleepovers are where kids create some of the best memories of their lives.  So how many children is too many children at a sleepover?  Do you know the REAL answer?

IMPROMPTU SLEEPOVERS ARE A NO-NO

It's always a nice thought until it isn't.  You're out and about with your children and they come running up to you begging to let one or two of their friends stay the night, at that moment you tend to forget the craziness that ensues during these types of events at your home.  You haven't planned.  You haven't shopped for food and you haven't prepared yourself for all the WHAT IF'S.   We are truly blessed that our kids have really good friends.  I mean their not robbing convenience stores or stealing cars.  They tend to get rowdy from time to time but isn't that what kids will do?

I learned this weekend that impromptu sleepovers with no preparation are a big fat NO.  Now here's the deal we have multiple children of our own.  I have been a teacher and was the director of a day camp for years but nothing prepares you for kids hopped up on sugar and no time-sensitive clock for sleep.

HOW MANY ARE TOO MANY?

Honestly, this is a toss-up.  It depends on the kids staying the night, their behavior, and the personalities brought to the table.  If you're a parent you know some kids go together like oil and water or a hurricane and a tornado.  You could have a bunch of really quiet kids and add one rambunctious kid to the mix and all heck breaks loose.  Basically, what I'm saying is to choose wisely.  You never want to leave anyone out and you want to be accepting of every single one of your child's friends. We love all our kid's friends.  Especially our youngest son.  He probably has the most sleepovers of all our children.  He's 9 and his friends are super special to us.  These boys are basically our own children that someone else gave birth to.  This past weekend was opening weekend for youth football and all the boys were back together again.  It started out with one boy staying the night and by 8:30 that night we had collected enough boys for an offensive line.  I'm not sure what I was drinking when I kept saying yes but there we were and if I didn't know any better I would have sworn they all snorted Dr. Pepper at one point (Lord Jesus).

We might as well of set fireworks off in our living room.  These boys were off the chain LOL.  It only takes one kid to start a domino effect and it's hard to stop what's set in motion.

It was basically like the movie Gremlins where you're told not to feed them past midnight or bad things will happen.  Yeah, the same goes for 9-10-year-old boys.  Don't give them Dr. Pepper and expect them to sleep or behave in any form or fashion.

I'm pretty sure at 1:30 a.m. when they woke me up I came down the stairs looking and sounding like the crypt keeper from Tales from the Crypt!

I'm still trying to recover.  I feel like I have a hangover from a rough night in college but I didn't drink or get to have any fun.

HERE ARE SOME EASY-TO-FOLLOW RULES FOR SLEEPOVERS

Make sure when you're planning the sleepover that the kids and their parents understand your house your rules.  Once you have this established the parents can prepare their child and their behavior.

• Set boundaries-let the kids know the rules immediately before they start playing games or hanging out.
• Set the NO EXCEPTION rule for fighting or bullying.  Kids can be mean.  Let your guests know you will absolutely not tolerate any bullying or fighting.   It's a no questions call your parents and go home.
• Set a bedtime-Obviously it won't be a regular bedtime but something where everyone gets a decent amount of sleep.  Tell them they don't have to go to sleep but to be respectful of everyone else in the house.

All in all, it was a fun night.  Great memories were made and everyone survived.  We didn't have any injuries, no blood, and we didn't lose any kids.  Back to how many is too many in my own professional opinion 7 is the number 7 was WAY too many.  Here's exactly what I posted to my own personal Facebook page.

As you can see all the other moms are apparently way smarter than us LOL!