Over the weekend I was presented with a situation I have not been in before that has me questioning my judgment.  My 13 year old son was at a birthday party for one of his classmates when he called me and told me that all the kids were sleeping over and could he.  Most of you are probably thinking, what is wrong with that?  Well it was a female classmate’s birthday party he was at and there would be a combination of 12 boys and girls sleeping over!

I had to think about this for a second.  Am I ready/Is it appropriate to have my 13 year old son sleeping over a girl’s house with a bunch of other kids?  Now if it was just him and the girl then my answer would definitely be no way!  But, since there were other kids sleeping over and they were good kids with good parents, I was leaning towards saying ok.

I did ask to speak to 1 of the parents to make sure this was ok and that they would actually be there.  The mom told me the boys were sleeping on the 3^rd floor with the Dad watching over and she would be on the 2^nd floor with the girls.  That did make me feel better until I remembered a few stints growing up at Natures Classroom where we were separated from the girls with chaperones and some of the boys still found their way up to partake in late night games with the girls.  But, I felt I could trust my son to behave.

I said OK and let him stay over.  I did think about my decision about 1000 times after, but again wanted to trust my son and know he would not let me down.  The hardest thing about being a parent so far has been accepting that he is growing up and is at an age now where he is becoming more and more independent and doesn’t need me as much (well, except for rides and money).  He has had some “girlfriends” that he spends time texting but not going anywhere with but as he gets closer to High School that will change.

So I am still wondering if I was a bad parent for letting him do this at 13.  Did I cave into “parent pressure” by following what the others had allowed their kids to do?  Everything worked out fine that night and there were no issues so that was a good thing.   He even came home smelling like a 13 year old boy (i.e. hadn’t showered in 48 hours) and had no trace of his Usher cologne on so that made me feel  better.

Has anyone had something like this happen to them with their kids?  Any advice?  I’m sure it is only a matter of time before he asks to do this again.