Miss 8 had a sleepover last night. with a lovely little princess from school. She's very nice, but the eldest of two, and I get the feeling that money is not an object in their house. Parents are also uber-cool, positive parenting, calmly ignoring their child's tantrum while they sip their Skinny Soy Chai Latte. By comparison my kids have been raised on the set of My Name Is Earl.
When kids come to play at my house, I'm old fashioned in that I expect them play, at our house, with the toys that we have, with each other.
In the past 18 hours I have been asked if we can "go to the pool, have some chips, go to the lolly shop, have some money to spend at K-mart, have some chocolate,use the paints to make a mural, have some fizzy drink, go to the movies, have some chocolate...." This kid has already seen every movie on the planet, poo-pooed our barbie doll collection, has 'way betterer' pencils and textas and doesn't like playing in cubby houses.
In the end I took them to the local YMCA heated pools so they could swim and get rid of some energy. Even there S-O kid was unimpressed that they couldn't have the whole large lap pool to themselves (how inconvenient of the Aqua-aerobics class and swim squad to take up half the pool). She asked me to buy her new goggles as her own pair were too stretchy (??). She didn't like the temperature of the therapy pool, the toddler pool is for babies only, and ..... arrggghhhhhh
The evening was long, the night was longer.. they stayed awake until 1 am, until I was making death threats and giving them the evil eyeball stare from the doorway. Miss 8 knew I meant business. The S-O Kid just giggled and ignored me. Eventually with me sitting at the end of the mattresses with my hands in the small of their backs so they couldn't move, they went to sleep.
They were awake at 6.30am giggling and at my doorway asking for breakfast. WTH?? Miss 8 usually has to be forced to eat breakfast somewhere around 10am during the holidays. I do not make anything before I have had at least one cup of coffee.
They have played this morning ... after I banned the TV.. so far my favourite comments have been "Sarah.. don't you even have an I-pod ?"
"I don't eat cereal for breakfast, unless Mum is feeling lazy"
"Can we have some chocolate, can we have some fizzy drink, can we have some chips????"
Here's what I've discovered - other people's kids don't know the "Counting to 3" rule. In our house I count to 3 and you'd better be running in the opposite direction on '3' or all backsides are mine!
In S-O Kid's house they count to 10. TEN!! What is that about? So I'm counting to 3 and my kids have scrambled, but S-O Kid is still jumping on the couch and trying to body slam the cat.
"Why Aren't You Running?" I ask.. "I usually wait til '8'...."
Arrrgggghhhhh!
How do you handle sleepovers from hell?
I used to love other people's kids...until I had my own. Now I find them very....grating. Maybe it's because I am accoustomed to my childrens' quirks, but I think it's mostly that parents these days are too busy to put as much effort into basic manners and respect than they were 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI am huge on my children using their manners. That being said Greenie is so shy around people and at best gets silly to try and cover it up, that that would probably appear rude.
I also fear how my children may behave when I am not around. If that were my child I would have died at how she played up for you.
When we have bluey's friends visit I am straight into "Well these are the rules at our house and if you can't follow them then don't bother coming back." Sometimes you've just got to be the mean friends mum, but really you won't be losing any sleep if those kinds of kids don't come back, will you?
Oh my lord I've had kids like that over, and I really don't get it. It makes me paranoid that my own kids would act badly at another person's house, and I just wouldn't know about it. It would have to be a complete personality change though. I have seen young kids like that grow up into well mannered teenagers, so there is hope!
ReplyDeleteThey don't get invited back. Pretty simple. We just do our best to cope with that visit and never repeat it.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I don't expect kids to fall asleep before midnight on sleepover nights so am prepared for it, husband stays up late with them and I go to bed earlyish, ready to wake up early the next morning.
Sleep doesn't happen on sleepovers.