I am so sorry this happened to you, Cara. I think this is an interesting thing to discuss. I have 3 daughters and I see 2 main things happen in terms of sleepovers. 1) Parents don't let their kids have sleepovers at all, I think because their worried about what you're saying. 2) Parents do the opposite - just drop their kids off for slee…
I am so sorry this happened to you, Cara. I think this is an interesting thing to discuss. I have 3 daughters and I see 2 main things happen in terms of sleepovers. 1) Parents don't let their kids have sleepovers at all, I think because their worried about what you're saying. 2) Parents do the opposite - just drop their kids off for sleepovers at a house where they have never even met the parents. They don't even come in to say hello. Wild, right?! I have a background in sexual assault prevention so I always talk to my kids about what they can do. But also I make sure to get to know the parents, find out who is staying at the house, etc... I think it is expressed in some of this discourse around kids who are growing up with smartphones today but who have no real world experience. This leads to some really problematic situations.
We do similar education for our girls and always make sure to know parents. I am always so surprised when parents just drop off and don’t come meet us. My husband and I have been known to just hang out in the yard doing yard stuff during pick up and drop off just to go meet parents in their cars—ha! I like the second part of what you said and I think it would help me flesh out my curiosity about the intersection of assault, childhood and smartphones like this: have parents in an attempt to protect our kids from the downside of IRL experiences (not knowing what to do in an emergency while babysitting, creepy dads, litigious culture, etc) traded in the upsides (intergenerational interactions, community fiber, low qualification job experience, etc)? And to what extent is this trade off a parenting issue or a wider cultural issue because we seem wholly disinterested in addressing the downsides?
I am so sorry this happened to you, Cara. I think this is an interesting thing to discuss. I have 3 daughters and I see 2 main things happen in terms of sleepovers. 1) Parents don't let their kids have sleepovers at all, I think because their worried about what you're saying. 2) Parents do the opposite - just drop their kids off for sleepovers at a house where they have never even met the parents. They don't even come in to say hello. Wild, right?! I have a background in sexual assault prevention so I always talk to my kids about what they can do. But also I make sure to get to know the parents, find out who is staying at the house, etc... I think it is expressed in some of this discourse around kids who are growing up with smartphones today but who have no real world experience. This leads to some really problematic situations.
We do similar education for our girls and always make sure to know parents. I am always so surprised when parents just drop off and don’t come meet us. My husband and I have been known to just hang out in the yard doing yard stuff during pick up and drop off just to go meet parents in their cars—ha! I like the second part of what you said and I think it would help me flesh out my curiosity about the intersection of assault, childhood and smartphones like this: have parents in an attempt to protect our kids from the downside of IRL experiences (not knowing what to do in an emergency while babysitting, creepy dads, litigious culture, etc) traded in the upsides (intergenerational interactions, community fiber, low qualification job experience, etc)? And to what extent is this trade off a parenting issue or a wider cultural issue because we seem wholly disinterested in addressing the downsides?