THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 13, 1995 TAG: 9505120061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
CALIFORNIA - THE Jurrasic Park of terrifying ideas - has hatched another fad that is headed to a house in your neighborhood.
Are you ready for this? Co-ed slumber parties.
Yes, according to The Wall Street Journal, more and more parents are encouraging mixed sexes slumber parties for teens, believing that it's better for boys and girls to come of age as buddies rather than steadies.
The mixed pajama parties have spread eastward and now are common in the Midwest. Since reading The Wall Street Journal article, I have done my own research.
The co-ed slumber party movement is, I believe, financed by a cartel of men's pajama manufacturers who know that teenage boys tend to sleep in their underwear and rarely use old-fashioned pajamas.
``My father sometimes wears pajamas, but I had never tried them until I was invited to a boy-girl slumber party,'' a 13-year-old son from Chicago said. `It's like wearing a sack with arms and legs. Really funky.''
Although the sleepwear adjustment is harder on boys than girls, teen girls have complained that boys lack manners and belch and scratch themselves too often.
``It's the last time we're inviting Floyd Pintoski to sleep-overs at my house,'' a Nebraska teen, explained. ``He belched the first time, and everybody laughed. Turns out he takes pride in it; thinks he's the Michaelangelo of belching. He did a belch for every item in the food chain. His broccoli were particularly disgusting and woke up my parents.''
Other complaints from girls heard after co-ed slumber parties:
Arm frogging.
Watching ball games on the television.
Dropping snacks onto the sheets.
Explicit references to bodily functions.
Animal tormenting: hiding the cat in a pillow case, putting a goldfish in the bedside water glass.
Failure to lower the toilet seat after use.
Snoring.
Belly flopping onto the mattress after going to the bathroom.
Although most parents said they had feared the teens would engage in sex, nearly all of the girls attending their first mixed pajama who did not have brothers claimed they would never even look at a boy again.
``It wasn't until I spent the night with boys that I realized how truly revolting they are,'' a 14-year-old girl said. ``I left the house where we held the sleep-over with a deep sense of pity for my mother, who has been sleeping with my dad for over 40 years.''
Boys attending the slumber parties had fewer complaints about girls. The young males complained that girls were too eager to hold ``meaningful discussions'' and that most of the girls did not know that the San Antonio Spurs were in the NBA playoffs and only one was familiar with Dennis ``The Worm with a Perm'' Rodman, who is one of the team's leading players.
Boys also complained that the girls lacked a sense of humor, particularly about pork-and-beans jokes. Several said they were ``freaked out'' by the girls' appearance after a night's sleep.
Not all the parents who allowed the boy-girl slumber parties at their homes said they were satisfied with the results. Quite a few preferred that their son or daughter go steady or become flagrantly sexual rather than have teens of the opposite sex acting as buddies.
One couple in Illinois claimed the buddy boys invited to spend the night at their place ``trashed the house and broke into the liquor cabinet with a chain saw.'' They said they will allow the boys to sleep over at their house on weekends - but only if they sleep in tents in the yard. They said they hoped the boys in the yard would go away once the snows begin . . . and never come back. by CNB