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Monday, October 3, 2011

What was I so afraid of?

I've had a long-standing personal rule: No boy parties at my house. I know it's unfair and probably sexist, but groups of boys scare me. They're loud. They tackle things. They eat a lot. They're stinky.  Last weekend, I decided I needed to get over myself. Seriously, I'm a 41-year old woman. I can handle a few boys, can't I?

It turns out I can!

Charlie invited friends to spend the night on Saturday. I was nervous because Mike was out with Annie, so it was just me and 6 boys (Robbie included). Even Charlie was a little unsure. "Mom, you're good at inviting people, but Dad is good at the actual sleepover."  I really couldn't argue.

But I've figured out the magic formula for surviving a boys' sleepover:

Basement + Video Games = Easy Peasy

While I put the pizzas in the oven, the boys headed downstairs to play video games -- Cars 2, Michael Jackson's dance off or something like that, and some sports game. As I cut carrots and apples to serve with the pizza, I heard the boys squaring off in tournament-like pairings for the video games. Those who weren't playing at the time were tossing the football -- a common occurrence in our house.

I braced myself for the stampede when I called them up to eat. You could have knocked me over with a feather:

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These growing boys ate less than Annie's friends did at her last sleepover. There was pizza, cheese curls, a few carrots, some apples and root beer left after they got up from the table.

Post-dinner activities included a movie, more video games and some chatter. Oh, a few times I had to remind them that the basement wall wasn't so good at catching the football. And I did have to extract Robbie from the fun so he wouldn't cramp his big brother's style. At 11:30pm, I gave them the 30-minute lights out warning. An hour in the dark later, there was still some laughing going on, so I had to put on my "mom voice" and be firm about them going to sleep. But that was it.

There was no cackling and squealing. I did not find myself in search of the ibuprofen. And no one asked me to make a last minute maxi-pad and candy run. In fact, the second bag of cheese curls, a bag of caramel popcorn and a family-size pack of Twizzlers went untouched!

The morning brought more video games, a backyard game of football and breakfast. Those boys may not have been big on snacking, but their breakfast consumption was more in line with my expectations. A dozen eggs, a loaf of cinnamon bread, milk, OJ and two pounds of bacon. They wanted donuts too, but because sometime around 7am they'd found and eaten some cupcakes, I put the kibosh on the donuts.

After the last boy went home, I found myself wondering what the heck I'd been afraid of?

5 comments:

kimybeee said...

as the mom of a 17 year old girl and 15 year old boy - i can't agree with you more on the girls vs boy thing. we always had huge girl sleepovers - a lot of them over the years. we had a few of the boy ones ( my son is less social lol), but i always dreaded them and looked forward to the girls.

the only thing i can ever remember going wrong with the boys is one of my sons friends asked him to videotape my daughter while she was in the bathroom ( and the kids were probably 6, daughter 8). we took care of that little problem real quick!!!

the girls eat about 4 times more than the boys too - but we have had some really fun times here. i was so sad that my daughter didn't want any more parties after her big 14th one - we had been big partying every year since 5. for her 15th she had one friend and then nothing for 16 and 17. and i am sure when 18 rolls around in january, she won't want anything then either!

i am glad you survived and your boys can have some party fun too!

Ellen aka Ellie said...

Mac was allowed to have one sleepover party a year for his birthday.

The boys were always great, but I did not sleep. Too uncomfy having so many kids in my house to be responsible for.

But I would think, looking back to my slumber party days and some events that have occurred in my teaching town (girls sneaking out to cause trouble), that boys are easier in that while they are noisy, they are drama free!

Anonymous said...

Aww...that's cute. Although, I'm sure the boys would rather I not refer to the sleepover that way. LOL

My son never really had any sleepovers other than cousins every now and then. My daughter has had a few, with one person only. That's manageable! ;)

Unknown said...

I dread the screaming girls who end up mad at someone by the end of the night if not more than one person! UGH! I think I'm just starting to get my feet wet in this area, but I am dragging them every step of the way!

Mel said...

So funny...I have two boys and we have been big on sleepovers. I learn so much about what is going on in their lives. Sam just turned 16 and we had a big sleepover and paintball party with 10 boys...it was hilarious. I was thrilled when they refused to play paintball with the girls...yuck! gross! And relieved that the movies they watched were all sports focused. Of course, it didn't hurt that the party fell during Papa Murphy's $4 pepperoni pizza sale! That's what they had for dinner #1 (at 6pm) and dinner #2 (at midnight). I'm sure with driving and dating right around the corner, that was our last big boys' sleepover. I will miss the noise and laughter!