Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs A millennial woman has expressed sadness at what she perceives as the increasing marginalization of a social activity she loved growing up—sleepovers.Sleepovers are still encouraged by some parents. A 2023 YouGov poll of a little over 6,000 U.S. adults found that 52 percent still felt sleepovers had a positive impact on a child’s wellbeing. However, even then, some were unsure with one in eight claiming they have a negative impact while a further 15 percent said they had no effect.Today, social media is awash with parents opposed to the idea. One mom-of-four who worked as a nurse previously went viral after listing sleepovers as one of the five things she would never allow her kids to partake in after seeing “horrible things” during her time in a pediatric intensive care unit (ICU).The situation is a source of some frustration to Savannah Bethea, a 31-year-old from South Carolina who has been thinking about whether she will have a family.So much so, in fact, she recently took to TikTok with a video posted under the handle @heyvannahbethea, in which she vented her anger at this shift away from a practice she regularly engaged in as a child with no issues.”I was having sort of an internal struggle,” she told Newsweek. “Sleepovers were core girlhood for me—the only real freedom you get when you’re a little girl. The idea of little girls today not having them at first seemed unfair, overprotective, super, super lame.”In the video, Bethea wondered why parents would be so untrusting of other moms and dads. “Shouldn’t you just have trustworthy friends?” she asked on the clip. It’s not necessarily a matter of trust for these overprotective parents, though.In a 2023 interview with AnalystNews, Christina Emeh, a licensed clinical psychologist in New York City, pointed to the impact of parents being “less connected to other families in our neighborhood and more connected to news stories that warn of dangers in our backyard” as a key driver behind the movement.
Savannah Bethea was devastated to discover sleepovers are no longer a thing of teenagers today. It’s a change that has left her saddened.
Savannah Bethea was devastated to discover sleepovers are no longer a thing of teenagers today. It’s a change that has left her saddened.
TikTok/heyvannah.bethea
Bethea’s video, which currently has 2.6 million views, certainly split opinion on TikTok. Many appeared to still be firmly in favor of sleepovers.One user wrote: “Not allowing sleep overs is false safety and isn’t protecting anyone,”A second added: “Neither of my kids are doing sleepovers. Ever.”A third appeared torn and posted: “I kinda get it but also feel bad for the kids. Sleepovers were the only time I got to get away from my parents for long enough to fully relax and all my best memories are from them.”Though Bethea’s video started out criticizing the idea, she too admitted that the more she thought about it, the more the idea of it being her son or daughter shifted her perspective on it.She thought about the idea of screening parents or encouraging kids to “speak up if something strange starts to happen.”But that led to a moment of realization: “No matter what you’ve taught that child, when they’re asleep they’re super vulnerable.”Bethea still thinks it’s sad that sleepovers are something many kids might never experience, but she’s now on the fence over what she would do as a mom.”I’m still sort of struggling over whether I’ll allow it,” she said. “Maybe at a certain age— maybe only with certain friends…I don’t know.”
