When you have (or had) toddlers, how did you handle nap time? Did you try to have a schedule or did you wait for signs of fatigue? Or did you ask “Do you want a nap?”
My daughter is 35, and for the most part, her naps were handled by day care. I’m pretty sure they had a set schedule, considering how many kids they had. I honestly don’t recall what we did on weekends or holidays - it’s too long ago.
With my granddaughter, they seem to try to stick to a schedule. It doesn’t always work - personally, I’m inclined to take cues from the kid - when I’m watching her, if she’s still playing, I may put her down an hour later than her parents would. And I know her other grandmother doesn’t put her down to nap at all - the poor kid falls asleep on the car ride home.
I wonder how much it matters - as long as they get rest during the day, does it make a difference that it’s precisely at 12:30 or whatever?
And no, we’re not arguing about it - I defer to the parents, even if they’re wrong.
Both my kids are near 35 but we let them nap whenever they feel like it now
When they were little we didn’t have scheduled nap time but they did seem to conk out at about the same time as each other so we got a little quiet time that way.
With the oldest, we lay her down on a schedule, and even if she didn’t sleep, she’d have an hour or so of quiet time in her room.
The youngest resisted naps basically from birth. He only got a nap when he basically passed out from exhaustion. Apparently, this is how I was as a child, as well.
I was always the ‘after lunch’ you laid down, Mom. Sleep or not.
Mid-daughter fought it like a beast. But, she was a beast in the later evening if she didn’t get some daytime rest.
The lil’wrekker would sleep 4 hours in the afternoon if I didn’t wake her. She got plenty of sleep at night. Never did figure that one out.
Naps are the only way to survive toddlers. It gives you at least a couple of hours of peace and quiet and they tend to behave better on the other side. Generally we’ve found the kids do best when there is a schedule so they know what to expect though they prefer to wait until they are exhausted before they lay down.
Now that the youngest is a toddler she’s down to just one nap a day and its right after lunch. The almost 5 year old gets about an hour after her sister goes down to get some one on one parent time then she has to go lay down. For both of them I’d rather have them in their room with the door closed screaming for an hour than interrupting my break from the kids so nap time is non-negotiable.
Our oldest started fighting naps early, and would keep himself awake when he was out of his gourd tired. He stopped entirely around the time he turned two, just a few months before his brother was born. He slept through the night from the beginning, though. We did make him stay in his room, though. Kid number two napped, but didn’t sleep through the night for the first couple of years. He was on a cycle of “sleep a couple of hours, wake up for a few hours.” There were nights where one of us would drive him around the DC Beltway at three in the morning so he wouldn’t wake everybody up. By the time they were in school both slept normally.
My son napped every afternoon up until the day he started kindergarten. We never had a schedule, he generally laid himself down in the afternoon. I think the morning nap disappeared around 3.
Most toddlers like a schedule. Same nap time, same bedtime.
Awful lot of pediatricians will recommend if kiddo isn’t sleeping at night, bring forward the bedtime (vs extend until the little ones are so freaking cranky they can’t see straight and finally sleep from exhaustion).
For the majority of toddlers, scheduled naps or at least quiet time is hugely helpful. Toddlers melt down enough, so just imagine if they are sleep cranky on top of it. For my twins, I often put 'em in the double wide stroller and then went for a 2-3 hour nap walk on weekends to give everyone a break.
I’m not a gramma - I’m BeeBush! Don’t ask - it’s too hard to explain.
Not nap but bed time - once my daughter was in a panic because she couldn’t see Roxy on the monitor. She’d crawled under her bed and fell asleep there, out of view of the camera. Kids, sheesh!
When my kids were little, I put them down when they seemed tired, after lunch some time. The youngest in particular would fight sleep and not go down easily, and gave up naps very early. Now I work in a day care, and the toddlers all get put to bed at the same time. A few of them are take a while to settle, but they all sleep for and hour or more (mostly 1.5-2 hours). I don’t know if the restless ones are not fully tired yet and would be better if we put them down later, or if that is their normal process for going to sleep. Comparing what I used to do with my kids with what I do with the daycare kids, I think if I’d put more effort and routine into establishing nap times, my kids would have slept better, and kept their day time nap for longer.
We were 100% routine, which caused a few problems with Grandma. Yes, you can put down a kid that doesn’t look isn’t tired, and you can wake up a sleeping baby. Their bed time was still 7:30 and they slept until 7:00 the next morning. They always did, we worked hard at it.
One day/night at Grandma’s house and we were paying for it for the next three days.
My brother and I didn’t take naps even at a year old. Our parents eventually gave up trying, but at daycare and even preschool they made us lie down and we never fell asleep. Our pediatrician said it was because we were hyperactive (ADHD).
At 5, Mom had to do somethig, so left me with the mother of a girl my age. We’re playing, and she says "We have to have a nap now. Me: What’s a nap? She: She pulls the shades and we go to sleep on her bed. Me: Why?
I guess my mother never needed a nap. The following year, they became official, in kindergarten, with my little blankie. I remember all these traumas vividly. . I hated them.
Whatever your daughter says is the right answer. My kids are well past the age where they need naps, which is a pain in the ass because I still do. We kept our regular schedule when they were small. Same time, even if they weren’t sleepy. It worked for us.
