Sleepovers: Our View

I'm reprinting something I found today after much discussion from child #3 about our family rule of not having sleepovers except with cousins.  We are not the only family in the neighborhood with this rule, but still he pushes.  It has ALWAYS been the rule, but I thought this was a pretty funny article.

For the first time we know of in general conference the subject was mentioned, by Elder Lawrence of the Seventy in October 2010.  He said:
“May I express my personal warning about a practice that is common in many cultures. I am referring to sleepovers, or spending the night at the home of a friend. As a bishop I discovered that too many youth violated the Word of Wisdom or the law of chastity for the first time as part of a sleepover. Too often their first exposure to pornography and even their first encounter with the police occurred when they were spending the night away from home.

Peer pressure becomes more powerful when our children are away from our influence and when their defenses are weakened late at night. If you have ever felt uneasy about an overnight activity, don’t be afraid to respond to that warning voice inside. Always be prayerful when it comes to protecting your precious children.”

Letter to my Child's friends and parents:

Dear ________ (friend’s name),
My daughter has made it VERY clear that she is NOT happy with our family policy of not having sleepovers at any of our friends’ house (“worst parents ever” were her exact words).  So that you understand that this is nothing personal (in other words, she likes you very, very, much, and so do we), here is WHY we don’t allow our children to have sleepovers at friends’ houses when it isn’t necessary:
1.       We make the rules for our family, and we are very, very cool.
2.       We like to inflict unnecessary torture and pain on our children, and make their lives miserable for no reason.
3.       We don’t want our kids to have any friends.  Especially not nice friends like you.
4.       We understand that if our daughter doesn’t attend this sleepover that her life will forever be ruined, and she will never, ever, ever have another friend.  That is exactly what we want to happen.
5.       During those 8 hours you are asleep, we understand that you will find a cure for cancer, solve world hunger, discover the lost city of Atlantis, and provide democracy to China.  We don’t want our daughter to be a part of ANY of that.
6.       Our kids love us sooooooo much that they cannot stand the thought of being away from us for one night.  We would not want them to have such a miserable experience with their friends (we must shield them and keep them in a bubble!).
7.       We do everything just because everyone else does them and because they are culturally acceptable to do so.  If everyone else was just doing sleepovers, then we would change what we do and be like everyone else, because that is the best way to live our lives! We so bad want our kids to understand that we change our standards for every exception that comes along the way!
8.       We know that kids are always on their very, very best behavior late at night away from home when adults are asleep (especially as they become teenagers).  We would love to establish a repeated pattern of our kids spending the night with their friends so that when they are teenagers it is a common practice and they can act their very best in the wonderful environment that repeated sleepovers provide!  It is when they are at home that they are wicked, wicked little monkeys.  We want them to stay at home so we can keep our eye on them because we don’t trust them at all.
Thanks for being so understanding of our family rules!
With love,
Your friend’s dad"