When is it Time to Give Up On Naps?

Well, first off let's be clear. We aren't talking about your naps. Your sleeping-in-the- middle-of-the-day times are over — at least until your kids reach school age. I'm talking about the time in the day when you tuck your kid in and have some time for yourself.

Naps kick ass! No matter how much of a bear your kids can be, you can typically take solace that in a couple of hours, they will be asleep in their rooms and you can have a matinee showing of the back of your eyelids. Then, typically, after an hour or so, your kids have a recharged battery and they are relatively sane again for a few more hours.

There comes a time, however, when your kid develops an extended battery — one that can last them throughout  the entire day and this time, my friends, means you get hosed. No more midday email checks, nacho eating, or porn surfing. Nope, you now have your kids from sunrise to sunset with no break.

So what do you do? Lock your non-napping kid in their room and make them shut their eyes? Although tempting, this will not work. Anyone with a toddler knows you may put a lock up but if they want to get out, they will use their super-human strength to pull a Kool Aid knocking down the bricks. (besides, locking your kid in their room could be perceived as child abuse) So forget about installing the Schlage, you need to hit the issue head on. Which translates to: you need to change, not your kid.

{mosnooad}The best way to deal with this transition is to stop fooling yourself into thinking your kid will nap again anytime soon. But you also need to test it out for awhile to make sure they are just not going through a phase. 

For a good month or so when my daughter was 3, she would nap one day and then not nap the next. She flip flopped for a couple of weeks, then she napped every day again. The point is one day of no nap is not the clue you're looking for. You might be saying to yourself, "Damn Noodad! Your kid took naps when she was 3!?" To which I would reply, "That's right boys, in fact she is over 4 and she still sometimes takes naps." But every kid is different, so don't think your kid, or mine for that matter, is strange.

In my mind, 5 days in a row of no napping and no residual exhaustion before bedtime means, your kid is done for good. So you may be thinking your day is over, right? Not so fast. Just because sleeping is over doesn't mean quiet time can't be established.

Quiet time can be really helpful for your kids and yourself. My wife has done an amazing job enforcing quiet time in our household. The rule: you don't have to sleep, but you need to play quietly in your room. This works in many ways:

1. My older kid learns how to play by herself for a short time
2. My younger kid gets to sleep if he needs it
3. My wife gets some much needed downtime

Man, I wish I had an hour during the day to play quietly in my room!

In all seriousness, naps are an important part of your kid's day. They need it to stay refreshed and to re-energize. Establishing a routine for naptime is sometimes necessary to keep finicky kids structured. How does your household do naps?