Childhood Sleepovers: the delight, the horror

This is the thread where we talk about staying at other people's home during our early years, and any haunting memories we still carry with us

The slow drift to silence as people begin getting sleepy, the joke/comedy fart noise in the quit that suddenly fires everyone up again, the quicker collapse back to silence.

About three months before everyone in our year started smoking weed, half a dozen of us stayed up all night to watch Assault on Precinct 13, Pump up the Volume and Hellraiser in a friend’s living room, unusually uninterrupted by their parents. I can’t date it exactly but I remember we wanted Boxing Helena but it wasn't out on vhs yet. And Two Moon Junction was out. But what we ended up with was probably better.

my friends house had a giant floor-to-ceiling poster of frank zappa in the basement bathroom, first time i encountered it was in the middle of the night at a sleepover. that's the only haunting memory i can think of

Mostly I just remember getting ravenously hungry in the middle of the night, because that's what happens when I stay up, and not being able to go raid the fridge because it was someone else's house.

i had a sleepover at my house for my 10th birthday ... new friends at a new school ... i got my period for the first time the night before. it was very traumatic.

I have an early memory of staying at my aunt's house, and I'm not entirely sure why as my sister wasn't there. Two things stand out: I was allowed to watch Night Gallery (she was a 'cool aunt'), and I had possibly my first shower (our house didn't have a shower, only a clawfoot tub) which I remember being violently stormy and noisy and not at all like a nice soak in the tub

We used to stay up until everything--absolutely everything--was unbearably funny. To us, anyway.

Had a lot of sleepovers as a kid. It was how I learned I was gay, if I’m being honest. No trauma involved.

There was a legendary sleepover house in my area. Modern home, middle of the woods in a valley. Lots of nights spent playing Metroid and legend of zelda, watching movies (including toxic avenger, sleepaway camp, Ferris bueller etc), playing laser tag in the massive wooded property at night, consuming unholy amounts of pizza hut. The kid who lived there could lace both his legs behind his neck and scoot around the floor like that. This was all during 4th or 5th grade iirc.

We used to stay up until everything--absolutely everything--was unbearably funny. To us, anyway.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 20 June 2023 6:48 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Otm. I have never experience humour as intensely as during late night sleepovers during teenage years. Unable to breathe sessions of laughing at the dumbest stuff. Absolute ecstasy, comparable to teenage drug experiences.

As a younger, younger child, mostly too much red cordial and being told off by friends parents for being too loud. Also, a lot of shame about not holding my knife and fork correctly because my parents never taught me. Judgemental looks from my friend and his parents as my knife made a scraping sound on the plate. Not fun

I was afraid of the dark for a long time as a kid, night lights & hallway lights etc. I went to only a handful of sleepovers, always w the same result: i always ended up getting too scared & the parents would have to call my parents to come get me bc i would lose my shit & want to go home ;_;

(hence not going on school camp until i got to high school)

but on the upside i got to watch the “Thriller” vhs at one of the aborted sleepovers; and I heard Wham’s Make It Big album for the first time

so not a complete waste of time

We used to stay up until everything--absolutely everything--was unbearably funny. To us, anyway.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, June 19, 2023 4:48 PM

Remember this phenomenon well. Rarely have a bellylaughed as hard at anything as an adult as I did at the absolute dumbest things in the world at age 11.

Also, one time we set a tree on fire in the wooded area behind a friend's house. That was... less funny.

xp it's probably time to forgive 12yo VG and acknowledge that you put yourself through some shit because you wanted to hang with your friends - spoiling things would have been saying "nah, too much stress" and not going.

I was afraid of the dark for a long time as a kid, night lights & hallway lights etc. I went to only a handful of sleepovers, always w the same result: i always ended up getting too scared & the parents would have to call my parents to come get me bc i would lose my shit & want to go home ;_;

Same but I don't think I was afraid of the dark, I just missed my parents lol. My mom used to come get me around 10 every time. Think I finally managed it around 11 or 12. Sleepovers from the on involved a Ouija board, USA's Up All Night, and occasional bra freezing.

In high school my group of close friends all loved horror movies - except me. We had a lot of sleepovers and there was always at least one horror movie viewing during which I kept my hands over my eyes. One night, I think we’d just watched The Omen, and we were all sleeping in the living room. I was on the couch and one of my friends was on an air bed right next to me. A few minutes after conversation had faded and everyone seemed to be falling asleep, this friend reached up and slowly put her hand on the top of my head. I SCREAMED, she laughed, i without a thought I thumped her right in the chest. Swear to god my heart stopped.

Two of my friends, maria and tammi, lived out in the country on farms. I don’t know who came up with the idea but we thought it’d be really funny to surprise maria on her birthday by secretly organizing a sleepover at tammi’s and then walking to Maria’s place in the middle of the night. It was dark as fuck - no street lamps, no moon, we didn’t have a torch - and Maria’s house was waaaay further than we thought. It took forever to get there, we were completely freaked out and exhausted, and Maria’s parents were not impressed.

I could only have one friend over at a time but my place was popular for sleepovers because instead of a bedroom, I had a caravan in my parents’ backyard. So obviously we snuck out literally every time, sometimes for parties, mostly just to walk around our small town. (The caravan was even more popular when I moved into the city and could sneak out to clubs)