The Rebel History of Girls' Sleepovers
Lately, parents are banning sleepovers. Are these fears new?
A few years ago, my teenage daughter returned from a sleepover, announcing she would "never sleep again." Her friends had shared hyperbolic urban legends until the morning hours. For days, she was afraid someone would steal her kidney while she slept. I was wary of ever allowing her to attend a sleepover again.
I am not alone. The sleepover monsters under the bed today are much hairier than a hundred years ago. Before agreeing to a sleepover, parents must question the host about firearm security, vaccination status, food allergies, access to online pornography, etc. There's so much worry that the hashtag #nosleepovers has gone viral.
But let's face it. Girls love to freak each other out. And they especially love to scare the bejeezus out of each other at sleepovers.
Not much has changed. Your mother, grandmother, and possibly your great-grandmother likely followed the same rite of passage, passing these rituals down from generation to generation like a distorted telephone game.
Here are a few ways sleepovers have changed throughout history.
