Should I tell other parents if their kids broke rules at our house?
Telling other parents when their children attempt to sneak out or break rules during a sleepover prevents secrets and ensures they hear the truth directly from you. Keeping quiet leaves parents unaware of risky behavior, whereas speaking up lets them handle the situation before it escalates.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- This comes up 15.5× more often in r/Parenting than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Banning the child from hosting or attending future sleepoversDid this help you?
- 2Confronting the children directly and sending them back to bed without involving their parentsDid this help you?
- 3Escalating the behavior issues to administrationDid this help you?
- 4Sending home a think sheet for parents to sign instead of direct emailsDid this help you?
- 5Sticking strictly to factual descriptions of the behavior without over-explainingDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My question is, do I tell the other parents what their kids almost did?”source ↗
“I would tell the parents.”source ↗
“Would you want another parent to tell you if your son was over someone's house and that happened?”source ↗
“I would. Better it comes from you than from someone else.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Should I tell my students about my medical condition?
- 3How to tell an 8-year-old about a new baby and stepfamily
- 3Should I report a coworker based on hearsay?
- 2When is the right time to announce a pregnancy at work?
- 4How to handle a child's excessive lying when family normalizes it
- 7Why do parents get mad about minor rules but ignore failing grades?