Planning and Hosting Your Child's Slumber Party

If you've got a tween or teen daughter in your family you'll be only too aware that sleepovers (or slumber parties) are all the rage for young girls! But as the kids revel in the excitement of staying up all night, eating takeaway pizza and doing endless makeovers on each other, the parents can be left reeling from a lack of sleep, an overload of squealing girls, and a house that looks like a bomb site! So how can you make sure your daughters' sleepover doesn't turn into a war zone?

Planning

Planning can ensure neither you or your daughter spring any nasty surprises on each other! Her idea of what constitutes a 'few' guests could differ wildly from yours, so make sure you set out the ground rules before she sends out the invitations!

In order to keep some kind of order for the rest of the household, you really do need to set in stone a few rules and regulations – particularly if you have younger children who will not be included in the sleepover and will be trying to sleep! These could include: no loud music after 10pm, no running about the house after lights out, no leaving the house. You might also want to check in with other parents on issues like TV after certain times, what DVDs they are allowed to watch (some parents of 13 year olds might be OK with them viewing 15 certificates movies, others will not) Far better to check all those kinds of things in advance, rather than deal with irate parents after the event!

Entertainment

Young girls rarely need any assistance when it come to entertaining themselves, and they will probably have their own agendas firmly in mind when it comes to sleepovers! However, if the makeovers, DVD watching and popcorn eating have worn a bit thin, there are lots of ideas you can suggest:

Baking – for instance, making their own pizza rather than having one delivered, or making brownies or fairycakes.

Karaoke – belting out a few tunes with the camcorder plugged into the TV so they can watch themselves.

Dancing – get them choreographing their own dance moves or copying a routine from a music video.

Lasting Memories

A sleepover book that goes along to each party is a really nice way for girls to record their good times together. All that's needed is a large scrapbook or photograph album, and plenty of mementoes from the party! The girls can swap books and write messages for each other, and Polaroid or digital images can be taken on the night to stick in.

Birthday Sleepovers

If your daughters' sleepover is for a birthday, you may want to pull the stops out a bit more! For a really fun night, you could consider:

• Having personalised t-shirts printed, or, with a digital camera and t-shirt transfer paper, getting the girls to make their own 'team sleepover' designs!

• Having a theme for the whole night, like High School Musical or Grease.

• Having a sleepover themed birthday cake – maybe having a picture cake using an image from a previous sleepover party?

Practicalities

Amongst all the fun and frivolity, do make sure all your guests know your house rules. Ensure you have contact numbers for every parent/guardian, details of any medication any guest is on, and any illnesses or allergies.

And as you don the earplugs to try and block out the thunderous rampaging from overhead, remember – it's only for one night (and your daughter will love you for it!)