Episode 73: Sleepover Anxiety and Chore Ambivalence

Do kids still have sleepovers? Terri and Amanda remember all sorts of slumber parties from their youth, but "kids today" with their social media and their personal phones maybe don't need to sleep at each other's houses to get that kind of large-group together time anymore. We discussed our kids' sleepover experiences and sleepover aversions, our own anxiety about kids being away all night, and the pros and cons of having young people spread out all over your living room.

Picking up after sleepovers is a chore no parent looks forward to, so we turned our attention to what kind of chores we expect our kids to take care of, what we've managed to get our spouses to do, and what we insist nobody can do but us. We admit to a general lack of chore-charting and a tendency toward not making chores a battle we fight, but our kids still seem to find ways to contribute.

Finally, we made our recommendations for the week: Amanda pointed us toward a blog post from Motherlode entitled "Age-Appropriate Chores for Children (and Why They’re Not Doing Them)"; Terri had articles to share on chores for kids with sensory processing issues (courtesy of the book Mixed Signals) and questions to ask before you send your child on a sleepover; Nicole would really like you to check out her site The Inclusive Class, which is full of educational material, podcasts, and information on inclusion done right; and Catherine mentioned an article on sports summer camps. Speaking of recommendations, Catherine is making a list of health and fitness–related podcasts and she'd like you to recommend your favorites. Contact her on Facebook or Twitter or in the comments section of this blog to let her know what she should include.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)