CLEVELAND — Getting the opportunity to host or attend a sleepover is a rite of passage for many children. It can be an exciting time but it can also cause hesitation and fear for both parents and children.
The complicated feelings are something a Cleveland mother says she wishes she paid more attention to before sending her daughter to someone else's house.
"I kind of like swallowed my hesitancy and allowed her to go. But I wish I would've followed my second instinct and was like, no, you're not going," said Michelle Mills of Cleveland.
It's been nine months since Mills says her daughter left a sleepover forever traumatized. On September 25, Mills and her husband went to Brooklyn Police after they say their daughter was attacked by four girls at a youth cheerleading sleepover.
Mills says this sleepover was common practice for the team but now she's lost trust in sending her kids to other homes.
"This is something my daughter participated in every year from [age] six to 11 and now she cannot participate in sleepovers anymore, probably until she gets to high school," said Mills.
"All it takes is one incident that can really impact your child," said Dr. Carolyn Ievers-Landers with Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital.
Ievers-Landers says it's natural for parents to have questions and no matter how hard it is to do she says it's OK to say no to your children.
"Some parents are like, I can't control the environment, so I don't feel comfortable. I can't control my child safety. Who else is in the house and how well they're supervised? So I'm not going to do that," said Ievers-Landers.
Ievers-Landers also suggests leaving room for the chance sleepovers could lead to developmental growth and lifelong friendships.
"It exposes them to different family cultures. That helps them be a little more flexible so they don't always have to have things exactly the same way," said Ievers-Landers.
