Wishes and Wants And Oh HELL No

I'm not a cool parent. I think this is important to get out of the way, when explaining anything to do with parenting. The most screwed up people I've ever known in my life, had cool parents. They in turn, were cool parents and had screwed up kids.
Being cool isn't what I am here for, parenting wise.

So you can imagine my consternation when my oldest child keeps telling me that he's been invited to a sleep over for a birthday party - for someone I don't know.

Now, I can be partially cool. I figure, a proper invitation, address, phone numbers, parents names - these sort of things would soothe my parenting savage beast and the boy can go. I don't have to be unreasonable and I am also pretty sure that the first few people I went to sleepovers with were probably NOT people my parents knew. Maybe they were - but I don't think so.

However, said sleepover is tonight. No proper invitation has been sent along, no address no nothing.

What has been sent along is a message that, they'll just come get him tonight and drop him off in the morning.

Ummmm. No.

Apparently the boy thought his father was being unreasonable with his NO to that, until he got to speak to me about it. I showed him what uncool mother really means. After I gave him my Oh Hell NO about twenty different ways I asked him  point blank, "Would you let Julia get into a car with strangers that you don't know, to go some place you don't know, and hope that they bring her back tomorrow?" to which he answered NO.

"Good," I said. "Because, my sweet ten year old boy, YOU are also MY baby just like Julia. And this is NEVER happening as long as I am alive."

I have offered him to give the boy his telephone number and they may call here today, and I am GLAD to drive him over, drop him off (providing next door isn't a crack den) and pick him up tomorrow. I am glad to do this at ANY time that their family needs me to do it.

Part of me feels like there really isn't a sleepover and this little boy is just talking the way children do, hoping to make something real if he says it. The other part of me worries that ridiculous people are going to invite my child over for a sleepover today.

I have this terrible feeling that they are COOL.

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