All my daughter wanted for her 16th birthday was a co-ed sleepover. I wasn't happy, but I survived.

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Teenage co-ed sleepovers are not my thing. And though this wasn't our first co-ed party, I'm not sure I was emotionally prepared for this one. Our first took place when my daughter was two. Any display of affection came in the form of messy check kisses, with arms clasped tightly around another toddler's waist, as they tried to wriggle away. But it seems that today's teens also like having co-ed birthday parties and don't shy away from asking their parents for those parties to be sleepovers — something I never dreamed of asking my own parents at that age.