It’s what nearly every little girl looks forward to as a rite of passage, and it’s what nearly every parent bites her nails over.
The sleepover.
At 10 years old, we’re right at that precipice of childhood when sleepovers require packing further ahead of time than we pack for a trip to China and an early bedtime the night before. While some may think the talk refers to something entirely different, at this point in our home, it can be summed up with this: make wise choices, don’t gossip about other people, be kind, and remember. All my parenting proverbs were put out there in a quick few minutes and were met with a big smile and lots of head nods as she was already warming up to sing “Let it Go” 100x with 3 other equally obsessed tween girls.
All 6 of us in the car got to experience the high-pitch squeals saying something that sounded like her name greeting us from the front porch as we drove up to the house. While I greeted her friend’s mom (may she rest in peace tonight), my daughter disappeared into the crowd like a rockstar with her peeps without even a goodbye.
Nice.
And, we drove away, down nearly 17% of our crew which sounds like not that much but feels like a lot more…particularly when nearly 33 1/3% of the bunch in the car seemingly barely noticed we even stopped the car and someone got out (don’t worry, I’m talking about my sons, not Mark and I).
Hardly seems right sending her off like this already. Granted, we’re not dropping her off at college here, she’ll be gone for a whole 18 hours tops. But, still, there’s something big about entering into the season of sleepovers. Have we prepared her enough for what she could face? Will she know what to do and how to do it in a challenge? Wait, that friend of hers is taller than I am. Seriously.
I was just thinking of biting some nails again when I got this…
My girl. My sweet little girl who used to have blonde little Shirley Temple ringlets. She’s so got this.
I texted her at 11pm to tell her that Dad and I were going to bed and to have a good night and not stay up toooooo late (plus or minus a few O s). I may or may not have used some sort of emoticon in classic Ashlyn style.
But, she didn’t reply. Guess the girls were already asleep. Guess I can be now too.