When my youngest child was 6, a new neighbor and her daughter came over to play. The mom enthusiastically offered to “return the favor” by hosting my daughter at her home for a sleepover. I knew this child had multiple older siblings, some of whom spent weeks going back and forth between their divorced parents’ homes.
When the pair left, my daughter looked at me and exclaimed excitedly that she was going to attend her first sleepover, just like she’d seen on some of her favorite shows and read about in some graphic novels.
I felt a tinge of hesitation before letting her down gently. My heart was screaming, “Absolutely not!” However, my words…
