The Joy of Naptime

Naptime is gold. It is mine. I will fight for it with everything I have. In the early days of daycare I would sit in the room with the kids and rub the foreheads of the ones who had trouble falling asleep. I discovered that if I rubbed downward towards their eyes they would have no choice but to close their eyes and go to sleep. I’m tricky like that. They didn’t even realize they were getting tired. Now that we have our routine down the kids finish eating lunch and just know what to do. We change diapers and then they all go and pull out their own nap mats and lay down. They know the routine. Everyone knows what is expected of them. Parents tell me all the time that their kids won’t take naps at home. It’s a talent I guess. I can get anyone to fall asleep. . . with the small exception of my own 3 ½ year old son apparently. He told me a few weeks ago “Mommy, I don’t take naps anymore.” He wasn’t kidding. I don’t think he’s taken a single nap since he told me that.

The only thing that didn’t change with his announcement was the fact that he still desperately needs a nap in the middle of the day or we are faced with a very opinionated grumpy little boy. Right now the daycare kids are sleeping and I can hear my son upstairs playing superman on his bed. I’m happy if he stays in his room for now. At first he decided that since he didn’t take naps anymore, neither did anyone else. That was not okay. We had several clashes over that one. I would get all of the kids happily down for a nap and settle down on the couch with my daily ration of chocolate and Ryan would run around waking everyone up and handing them a toy to assure that they would not willingly go back to sleep again anytime in the near future.

Today, as long as I get my moment of peace, I am okay with him playing in his room. At least he is doing his own thing right now. This is my version of a lunch break for the benefit of anyone out there that has a normal job and is allowed to go to the bathroom without anyone pounding on the door asking what you are doing and if they can watch. It’s my 15 minutes break on the busy days and my hour of “me-time” on the better days.

People tell me all the time that their own kids never took naps when they were 3 years olds so I should just let it go. Besides the fact, that I’m not ready to give up my nap break just yet, a 3 year old screaming and crying that he most definitely is not tired does nothing to convince me that my son does in fact still need his nap. So for today I’ll let it slide because I’m too tired to argue with him and he tends to wake all of the other kids up anyway with all the yelling that he isn’t tired if I try and force him to take a nap. I’ll wait until dinner time tonight when he is fast asleep in the couch and angry that we are not letting him sleep.