Parents Talk Q&A: Hotel Sleepover Parties

Welcome to "Parents Talk," a new, weekly feature on Cleveland Heights Patch. Each week the Cleveland Heights Parents Council will answer a question on parenthood posed to them by readers or another member of council. Join the conversation by logging in an posting a comment or posing a question below. We'd love to hear from you. 

This week's question : What issues should you consider when your child gets invited to a sleepover party? 

Mariya Ali: Katura (Simmons) and I ended up having a drawn-out discussion with another parent last Sunday on this topic. Both of our daughters are in middle school and get their share of invitations (though my first-grader has received a few as well). Specifically, we talked about an emerging trend of hotel sleepovers.  For those of you who have never heard of such a thing (because I only recently became aware of it myself), inviting parents rent a couple of rooms at a hotel, let the guests splash in a pool during the day and then spend the rest of the night watching movies, eating, talking, etc.

For me the most important consideration is my daughter's safety, so the same rules would apply here as for any regular sleepover.  I personally always insist that the hosting family is well-known to me, that I only leave my daughter in the care of adults whom I consider to be responsible.  I never allowed my daughter to spend the night at a friend's house whose parents I did not know well.  

As for hotel parties in particular, I would like to see girls only and a manageable number of guests for a parent.  In addition, I think hosting parents should control the type of entertainment available to the girls — for example, movies that would not seem inappropriate to any of the guests' parents.  I am relatively liberal about what I allow my daughter to watch, play, read and listen to.  However, when hosting a party, I try to keep in mind that other parents are often a lot more conservative in their views. I ask my daughter to save any potentially controversial media for other times.