There comes a point in every child’s littlehood that they decide they shouldn’t take naps. If I were content to leave it alone, none of my children would have continued to nap during the day into their third year.
The thing is, I’m not content to leave it alone. That is the only time of the day where I get a few short minutes of quiet, rest and solid work time. Even more though, I found right off the bat with boy number 1 is that although they may hit this “no nap” sometime when they are three, most of them weren’t truly ready to give it up permanently, it was merely a temporary thing.
Through all 6 of my boys they have been very varied in their napping. Some of them nap until Kindergarten (and even then aren’t truly ready to give it up), others are definitely ready to move on to “rest time” at the age of 4. None of them gave it up completely before that, though they may have tried.
The twins are now 3 1/2 and sometimes struggle with the nap thing…though sleeping has never been something they excel at (LOL). My 6 year old (Sir Lion) on the other hand, who is in half day Kindergarten this year, still shows signs of definitely needing a nap a couple times per week.
Even if it seems like the end of napping is at hand, I really like everyone to have quiet time each day…even the bigger ones during summer break. They don’t have to lay down of course, but I do ask that they keep their voices down, there will be absolutely no rough housing, and I encourage anything quiet: reading, games, playing quietly, etc. They occasionally slip and get noisy, but for the most part, they reap the benefits of this arrangement too. I really do believe that it is healthy for everyone to have some quiet in their day.
So the dilemma? Like I mentioned the twins are terrible sleepers (Ok, so I put it nicely before, but let’s not be in denial here) and at 3 1/2 they are terribly difficult to get to nap. Do they still need a nap? Yes, all signs point to the fact that they are definitely not doing well without a nap. So, as unruly as they are, I am trying now to teach them about “quiet time”. You may play quietly or read quietly on your nap bed (they do NOT do well if they are in the same room at naptime), but you may not get up.
So, in the midst of my current dilemma which may or may not mean that my last children are done being nappers (sigh), here’s a little info I thought I’d share on the subject that I’ve learned over the years.
- Some children will go through stages of napping. Just because they are having a difficult time napping right now, may not mean that they are done napping altogether, they may be ready again next week so keep up the routine.
- If your child is young and you don’t want them to give up napping completely, go into it like it’s a temporary thing, and continue with their routine. They may simply lay in their crib hugging their cozy for the hour and a half they would normally nap, that’s fine. This gives both you and the little one time to recouperate from the morning by having a little down time. Some don’t go for this easily, and many a parent has given up after a few days thinking that there’s no hope.
- If you don’t want to continue trying to get your child to nap after a few days, that is entirely up to you. But if you really do want to give it a fair shot, keep going every day and if nothing else, you will at least establish a routine.
- When do you know that your child needs to cut out or down on naptime? If your child cannot get to sleep at night, they are restless when they do sleep or they wake up in the night unable to go back to sleep.
- When do you know that naptime is simply a challenge, but that your child still needs a nap? For my children, it depended on the child. But, by around 5 or 6pm (way too early), they would exhibit one or more of the following: overly emotional (crying for no reason), mad at the world (crabby and angry at everyone about everything), rollercoaster emotions (laughing one minute, bawling the next – way more than usual even for the personality that does that), falling asleep in the car (especially if you go somewhere around dinnertime), bouncing off the walls (a couple of my kids get ultra hyper when they are tired – total oxymoron, I know, but they did).
I’m sure there are plenty of things I’m forgetting about, but that’s quite a bit for now. Feel free to leave a comment with your naptime dilemmas, solutions or questions. If you have a question, be sure to come back and check comments in a few days for an answer.
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