by Stephanie Davis

Created on: September 14, 2009   Last Updated: September 16, 2009

Sleepovers are a national past time of both kids and teens of both sexes. It is becoming more common to have coed sleepovers. While I am personally all for progress the idea of coed sleep overs is a bit much for me and other parents. Even though my son is only six and has been and hosted a few sleepovers, it is only members of the same sex. The rule is no members of the opposite sex are allowed to sleepover at our house.

More progressive parents may see this as prudish or old fashioned I have even been called narrow minded. The most common and very concrete argument against coed sleepovers is that it permits sexual activity among the kids. It is often argued by supporters that kids of the same sex will do the same thing. It is true that it may happen and does happen, however one has to think overall of what is proper and what is not. Teens have hormones and often lack the self control that adults possess when in tempting situations. Can one imagine what would happen if teens with raging hormones are allowed to be left alone unsupervised overnight? It does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Coed sleepovers are a breeding ground for sexual liaisons between children of the opposite sex.

One could take the argument that children of the same sex might experiment and the only way to be fair is too not allow children to have sleepovers at all. One could be this extreme and take the fun out of completely, but in the end would that be really fair to the kids? The happy and fair solution is to limit these sleepovers to friends of the same sex. Most parents are happy with boy or girl only sleepover as this is the traditional way of doing them and what is considered to be proper. Even those parents who call themselves open minded often do not like the idea of coed sleepovers. If children of the same sex do experiment sexually at a sleepover, the best thing to do is to call the parents have them come and pick up their child and inform the parents of why you are wanting their child to leave the party. Teenagers are children and sex is an adult act and should not be engaging in it at all until they are adults.

In this day and age where teens are having sex at younger ages and having STDs at higher rates it is the job of parents too not allow opportunities for these activities to occur. Prohibiting coed sleepovers is a step in the right direction even if it means being called narrow minded or old fashioned .

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