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Your Child's Overnight Invitation
He's Ready, Are You? By Sharon Waldrop
"I think a parent will feel most at ease letting their child sleep over when they truly know the parents of their child's friend," Dr. Viscardi says. "The only way this will happen is if a parent takes the time to meet in person and get to know the parents of their children's friends."
Dr. Viscardi suggests that parents can get to know other parents by offering information about themselves first rather than appearing that they are conducting an interrogation.
Dr. Viscardi has other recommendations for parents contemplating an overnight invitation for their child:
- If there are guns in the home, how are they secured and who has access to them?
- Will an older sibling tend to the children because a parent is working a night shift or doing another activity?
- What kind of pets are in the home?
- What types of video or computer games are in the home?
- Are children allowed to surf the Web unsupervised?
It is also important that a child is old enough that he or she won't experience separation anxiety.
"I'm guessing an age range of 8 to 10 is probably average," says Viscardi. "Although the 5 to 7 age range would not be unheard of."