How did you feel about sleeping over at your friend’s house or sleepover parties when you were a kid?
I knew some kids who loved Sleepovers and tried to schedule them every weekend, I knew others who thought they could handle them but ended up calling their mom to get them in the middle of the night every time, and I also knew some who didn’t like sleepovers at all and would get picked up before everyone went to bed.
Nowadays, parents are weighing their opinions on sleepovers and have begun intervening in their children’s decision whether or not to sleep over at their friends’ houses.
While many parents agree that play dates and having quality time with friends at their houses are vital to their children’s socialization and development, some are beginning to draw the line at sleepovers.
Why? They fear that sleepovers make them more vulnerable to adults with bad intentions.
Parents have been taking to social media to share their thoughts on sleepovers, and one mom went viral for sharing a harrowing story from her past that made her not want to send her kids to sleepovers.
Randi Burkett (@randigaylord_) is a mom and TikTok creator who used to work in a men’s prison. She shared a story from working in the prison that influenced her decision not to let her children go to sleepovers.
In her viral video, Randi explains that she worked in a level-5 men’s prison. Her captain did everything he could to keep her from having direct contact with the Inmates as often as he could to keep her safe or away from any traumatic experiences, especially since she was a young woman at the time.
However, one night, the prison was understaffed, so she was assigned to supervise inmates in the C-dorm. She later learned that the C-dorm was a designated dorm for inmates who had committed crimes involving children.
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Randi then explains that these inmates were placed in an area away from the prison’s general population to keep them from getting hurt or killed by other inmates.
Before her shift, Randi was unsure what she was walking into or how the inmates would behave, but she remembers the experience as not at all what she expected.
“[It was] definitely not what I expected,” says Randi.
“I say that because they were all so nice and extremely respectful. Most inmates, they’re not the nicest, you know? But all of these guys were so incredibly nice [and] so respectful. They never gave me a hard time [and] they never harassed me.”
Randi recalls these inmates being polite and charming, always saying please and thank you and asking her to get them things ‘whenever she had the chance.’ They behaved the exact opposite way she expected, which she found to be terrifying.
“We think these monsters look like monsters; they don’t,” says Randi.
“They look nice, they have good manners, and they’re respectful. They gotta get you to trust them [and] they’re good at it, like, they’re scary good at it.”
Eventually, Randi was a little freaked out when she remembered that all of those super polite and friendly inmates were the ones who did something awful to children. Not a single one of them would be where they were if they hadn’t done something to harm a child.
She was deeply disturbed when she went home after that shift and researched what some of those men had done. To make matters worse, many were men who were supposed to protect and nurture children, like doctors, pastors, judges, and fathers.
In her video, Randi explains that this is one of the reasons she doesn’t want to send her children to sleepovers. You never know what an adult, even if they seem friendly and have great kids, is capable of.
“You don’t know what goes on in other people’s homes, and also, I don’t think we talk about it enough, but not just men hurt children,” says Randi.
“Sadly, women do too. We are all that our kids have. We are their protector, we are their provider, we are their advocate, [and] we are their voice when they don’t have one. I’m not shaming anybody for having sleepovers, to each their own. Personally, it’s an absolute heck no for me because I have seen what these monsters look like.”
How do you feel about sending children to sleepovers? Is it a part of life that should be embraced, or should parents think twice about letting their kids sleep in someone else’s home?
@randigaylord_ This is no shame to anyone, just want to give a different perspective #prison #prisontiktok #saveourkids #sleepovers
? original sound – Randiburkett
