Need Your Tips About Building Independence in Kids for Better Homes & Gardens!

C.,

When my oldest daughter brought up the ideas as a pre-schooler (then age 4), our response was that she needed to have four (the number was one she identified with as her age) sleep overs at Grandma's house (without mom or dad) before she could go to a friend's house.

It worked because she was in a place that she had been before, but it still took three tries before she didn't cave in and cry to come home. She is now age 6 and has successfully spent the night away from home a few times.

I would feel terrible allowing her to stay at anyone else's house before she really was ready for the sleep over experience.

My sister struggles with a neighbor girl (age 7) who has twice "failed" in the middle of the night during a sleep over. My sister said that the little friend just doesn't understand that a sleep over is for ALL NIGHT (in spite of assurances that she does). My neice (who is 7) is hurt when her friend leaves and everyone just tries to pick up the pieces.

Your article will be appreciated by a lot of moms and dads who are helping their children (and friends) gain this level of independence.

Well we just had a birthday slumberparty and had 3 other girls spend the night. I made sure to get phone#'s of all the parents. I have never meet the parents before this sleep over so I wasn't sure how it would go. The girls camped out in the front room so that I knew where they were and there was enought room. One litte girl got scared and did want to go home @ 2am but when I asked if she wanted the tv left on she seemed ok with that. They all went home around 10am the next day.

Well my kids are not teen or tweens but they will be staying at diffrent grandparents this summer. When the summer is all said and done they will be home for 3 weeks. I know this seems like a long time but this is the only time that they will get to see family. They all live in another state. I will let them take one of our cel phones with them so that they can call us anytime. They are very excited for summer to come. They have been gone for a month before but not the whole summer. I think that I will be more sad than them.

My kids got an early start and sleep overs and I have never had them want to come home. They feel safe. They had spent time at grandparents many times before hand that may of helped. My son likes to bring his blanket and something to sleep with.

I don't have a lot of time to write but I just sent 2 girls off to college and we started about a year before school discussing finances, listing purchases they will need to make and had them assist me in handling my bills so that they new how to handle them. I also guided them through making health and dental appointments and contacting insurance. Want to talk more, e-mail me at ____@____.com

Well, I dont have any kids old enough for the last two questions, but I can help some with the first one. What I did to prepare my son was have him spend the night at an aunt's house, who happened to have a kid his age. It was familiar, yet not his house, though other parents do not have to use a relative that has kids. Also, I told him that if he does get scare, it was ok and just have the parent call, or he can call me himself, if it was ok with the parent. I wrote down our number for him to carry in his pocket. He never used it, but I know it helped. Good Luck with your article!

Hi C.!
I homeschool so the whole college thing was a new experience for my girls. To prepare them financially, we played Monopoly. I added a new twist to it by making fake checks on my computer and printing them out. Whenever they were given Monopoly money, we treated it like real money in a checking account. They gave the $$ to the "bank" and entered it as a deposit in the fake check register. When they had to pay rent, utilities, and such, they wrote a check for it and balanced their checkbook. By the time they went off to college, they were more than prepared for the "real" world of finance. I think the article that you're writing is an excellent idea. Thanks!

Just Me!
S.

My 7 year old son was just invited for a sleep over a week from tomorrow. He will be taking a stuffed dog with him to make him more comfortable. I have given him a short discussion about what to expect and to use good manners. I will talk to him more about this when the day comes closer. He seems to be excited and is handling this better than me. I know he is ready for this, but I am not. He has a lot of allergies that may make it uncomfortable for him. We will have to cross the road when it comes.

I will let you know how the sleep over goes.