My son is trying hard to give up naps already. He’s just 2-1/2, but his sister gave them up at the same age, so I may be doomed on this one. But I’m going to try hard to keep the naps going.
Yesterday was pretty much a no-nap day for him. Maybe 15 minutes, if at all. Of course that means today he pretty much collapsed in a tantrum from exhaustion, as well as being very tired by bedtime last night.
I’m realizing that it can be a bit tricky to deal with naps with a second child. When my daughter started giving up naps I could pop a movie in and trust that she would fall asleep to it about 75% of the time. That doesn’t work so well with two kids. Too many distractions.
So I’m trying to figure out the best ways to tire him out enough to get through this latest attempt to quit napping. He just gets too cranky without one, so I’m not going to let it go easily, and every other day is not enough.
Not to mention how much harder it makes it to get any work done around here.
I really don’t want to put a knob cover on his door to keep him from opening it. I really feel like he’s old enough to be allowed to open his own door. We live in a single story house, so no worry about stairs. But on the other hand, if he can’t get out of his room he’s more likely to nap. Always worked before he figured out how doors open.
For now I think I’m just going to have to work the tiring him out angle harder. There really aren’t a lot of other options that I can think of.
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Maybe offer him a treat if he lays down for 10 minutes. Hopefully he’ll fall asleep. I was lucky. My kids still took naps when they were 5. I think the Lord was looking after me. He knew I worked out of our home and needed that time!
You just have to make it a routine as far as nap time. Set a time of about 45 minutes each afternoon, right after lunch to have quiet time. In running a daycare we have that problem. But,we stick to our guns and tell the children they have to lay quietly even if they do not want to go to sleep. Because there are other children who need their nap. We have some soft music playing in the background, usually they are all asleep with in 5 minutes.
I think most of the problem is simply that he’s discovered how to open his door. Before he could do that, napping wan’t something he could get out of easily. And then the days that he’s most stubborn he often isn’t acting tired yet. He’d probably be happy if I could let him wait until 3 to nap, but that’s much to late.
He’s resisting even when tired, and often resisting hard. The past couple days he has conveniently managed to poop within 10 minutes of being put down for a nap.