Just received this question from one of my readers:
Q: “I’m sure everyone has run up against this at one time or another — what do you do when a parent wants you to cut out a child’s nap, but when the child hasn’t napped or hasn’t napped for very long she turns into a nightmare? Tired, rubbing eyes, meltdowns, crying, uncooperative.
I know it may mean an earlier and easier bedtime at home. I always let me kids nap as needed and never really minded if my child was up to 8:30 rather than in bed by 7:00, I can understand why some parents want/need this time for themselves in the evening, but from 2:30 til 5:00 p.m. in afternoon are nightmares because of it.”
A: “I run into this issue all the time and currently have a family asking that their child have an exception which I won’t make. I finally put this little blurb in my contract about my napping policies
All children who are not in school, ages 2 to 5 will be required to have a nap/rest time each day. Regular nap/rest time will be between 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm every day. I will not force a child to sleep but they must remain quiet so that other children can sleep. If your child wakes early from their nap, they will be directed to a quiet activity until the nap/rest time
period is over.
*Please note*: Quiet time and nap is important for all children as they are active here. I will *NOT* make any exceptions to keep children awake or wake them up during this time.
Good Luck…I wouldn’t make an exception. This time when children sleep is too important and I just remind parents this is my “break” where I work on other daycare related stuff or actually read, but that I am also still working as I keep an eye and ear on the children at all times. When they (a parent) gets their breaks or lunch break, they actually get to leave their jobs.”
2 responses so far ↓
1 Kit // Oct 18, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Children 2-5 need between 12-14 hours of sleep a day - there’s no reason why a child should not have a 2 hr nap mid day , and still sleep 10-12 hours at nite.
The biggest problem I had with all of my kids at this age was that the traditional daycare naptime is indeed 1-3 , meaning a child up at 6am and in bed at 7pm is going strong for 7 hrs, resting, then only up for 4 hrs after the nap.
When I switched to doing daycare, we moved lunch to 1130, nap to noon, and then the parents started reporting that the kids had no trouble going to bed ,lol- especially since we had active play in the afternoon.
2 Mia Childs // Jan 19, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I remember one night I had one of the girls from daycare babysitting for me, and her one comment on trying to get the kids to bed was “wow, so this is what bedtime is like when they have had a long nap??” Amusing
On the flip side - my 5 year old hasn’t had a nap in 2 years (oh, believe me, I’d love it if he did!) and he starts school next week, and they tell me he will be having nap time. Good luck!
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