holybuckeye33
Hall of Fame
So last night my son has a sleep over for his 10th birthday. Him plus 5 other kids, all in the same grade. We took them to a minor league baseball game then game home, had cake and ice cream and said you guys can stay up as late as you want as long as you are quiet. Gave them options of numerous "pre-approved" dvds to watch.
Around 1:00 my wife and I go to bed, they are all still up watching dvds. Awake at 5:15 this morning with a thud. One child is standing at the top of our steps with a plush ball and trying to hit another as he runs past the bottom of the steps. My wife goes out and tells them to stop. Moments later we hear voices downstairs so I go down to check out what's going on. I discover that my son and another boy (probably his best friend out of the bunch) were asleep and the other 4 had marked (with black permanent marker on their face, back and arms) the two of them.
Needless to say we were very upset, because our son has very sensitive skil. The explanation given as to why was that they were the first to fall asleep. We told the boys involved that we were very disappointed in them and expected more out of them. We also told them that if it wasn't 5:30 in the morning their parents would be getting a call to come pick them up.
So when the parents do eventually come to pick them up, naturally one by one, asked, "Did they behave?" Now I understand boys will be boys, and I considered myself a very mellow and laid back person but I was not about to lie to their parents when something like that had occurred, so my wife and I were honest and said that we didn't know to which extent each kid was involved, but that we suspected that all four of them played a part. We have since learned this to be true.
My son is very close to all of these kids and each has spent the night at our house countless time, so I'm not sure what prompted this on this occasion. In fact 3 of the 4 involved and my son had a sleep over last week.
Anyway, the reason for this long post is that obviously these parents did not take it very well. One mother called crying and apologizing, another father called to apologized and informed that he may hold his son out of baseball allstars for this. My wife and I get along with all the parents really well, as do the kids, and I don't want this to come between either our relationship with the parents or my son's relationship with the boys.
The rationale for telling the parents is that we didn't want the same kids to go to a sleep over at another kids house and do the same thing and say "Well we got away with it at Mr. Such and Such's house (and no I don't know Maurice Clarett)." Then we get an angry phone call from another parent asking why we let the kids write all over each other with markers.
BTW, all of the parents said that they would have been more upset if we didn't tell them and that they would've done the same things as us if the situation were reversed, I just wanted to get an idea of how other people would have handled it.
Also, if you post on jjhuddle, you might have seen this already. I got the feeling that I was getting a lot of teenage type responders and wanted to try and get a more mature point of view.
Around 1:00 my wife and I go to bed, they are all still up watching dvds. Awake at 5:15 this morning with a thud. One child is standing at the top of our steps with a plush ball and trying to hit another as he runs past the bottom of the steps. My wife goes out and tells them to stop. Moments later we hear voices downstairs so I go down to check out what's going on. I discover that my son and another boy (probably his best friend out of the bunch) were asleep and the other 4 had marked (with black permanent marker on their face, back and arms) the two of them.
Needless to say we were very upset, because our son has very sensitive skil. The explanation given as to why was that they were the first to fall asleep. We told the boys involved that we were very disappointed in them and expected more out of them. We also told them that if it wasn't 5:30 in the morning their parents would be getting a call to come pick them up.
So when the parents do eventually come to pick them up, naturally one by one, asked, "Did they behave?" Now I understand boys will be boys, and I considered myself a very mellow and laid back person but I was not about to lie to their parents when something like that had occurred, so my wife and I were honest and said that we didn't know to which extent each kid was involved, but that we suspected that all four of them played a part. We have since learned this to be true.
My son is very close to all of these kids and each has spent the night at our house countless time, so I'm not sure what prompted this on this occasion. In fact 3 of the 4 involved and my son had a sleep over last week.
Anyway, the reason for this long post is that obviously these parents did not take it very well. One mother called crying and apologizing, another father called to apologized and informed that he may hold his son out of baseball allstars for this. My wife and I get along with all the parents really well, as do the kids, and I don't want this to come between either our relationship with the parents or my son's relationship with the boys.
The rationale for telling the parents is that we didn't want the same kids to go to a sleep over at another kids house and do the same thing and say "Well we got away with it at Mr. Such and Such's house (and no I don't know Maurice Clarett)." Then we get an angry phone call from another parent asking why we let the kids write all over each other with markers.
BTW, all of the parents said that they would have been more upset if we didn't tell them and that they would've done the same things as us if the situation were reversed, I just wanted to get an idea of how other people would have handled it.
Also, if you post on jjhuddle, you might have seen this already. I got the feeling that I was getting a lot of teenage type responders and wanted to try and get a more mature point of view.
