by MiS11

Created on: July 28, 2009

Yes, children under age ten should be allowed to have co-ed sleepovers. First of all, let us say what they are children not adults. Therefore, let us adults not treat them as if they are adults and instead treat them like children. As a society, we put way too much sexual emphasis on everything, from movies, music, to everyday life. Children, which is what the ten and under crowd are, do not automatically place that sexual emphasis on normal, everyday life; unless their parents teach/taught them to do so. A child under the age of ten is only in the fourth grade, maybe fifth if he/she started early. With that in mind, unless the child's parents or the parents of the child's friends taught their children to be promiscuous/sexual, a normal child of that age would not think of it on their own. The only way a child age ten or under would, without the earlier circumstances, have sexual/promiscuous thoughts is if he/she were psychologically unbalanced, disturbed, and/or abused.

I can say this with confidence for the fact that I hold a Bachelor's degree in Education and taught public school for many years. Currently, I am obtaining a Master's degree and have two children of my own. Are they allowed co-ed sleepovers? Yes they are and both of my children are female. My girls' best friends are currently all boys. All of the children and that is what they are children are under the age of ten. My husband and I, as well as the male children's parents, do not make anything of it. Therefore, it is not abnormal to the children.

Along with the male friends, my daughters' cousins, who are their age, are male. Their only female cousins are much older, and babysit the younger ones. This makes the older female cousins as the authority figure and not regarded as friends. When my children have friends spend the night, they are very well supervised by my husband and myself. When my girls spend the night at a male friends' house, or their male cousins' homes, they are very well supervised by the parents. What it all boils down to is, are the parents responsible in supervising and teaching their children?

Now, with that said, will I allow the co-ed sleepovers to continue into the teenage years? Absolutely not. The reason being is because as human beings mature, they become sexually curious. It is the basic survival of our species. This does not happen until puberty. Subsequently, I feel absolutely confident with my female children having co-ed sleepovers with their male friends/cousins, whom I know personally, as well as their parents.

As previously stated, we as a society, should allow our children to be children and not make them grown-up before their time. I completely understand that back in the previous centuries, children were having babies at early ages. That was because there was not such formal education as is the case now and a much shorter life expectancy than now days. So, yes, co-ed sleepovers are 100% okay for children ages ten and under. As parents, do not make it more than it is - and that is friends.

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