Help!
>> Monday, March 24, 2008
OK, so I have one child who naps. By 1 pm she is down and sleeping for 2-3 hours.
And I have one child who doesn't. Unless I have run her ragged she is awake all. day. long.
I try putting her down for "quiet time" hoping she will stay put- in my bedroom- and let me get something done.
Not long after "quiet time" has begun she is behind me full of questions and wanting help.
So, I ask all the other mom's out there: WHAT DO I DO??? I need to have that bit of time- just for my sanity!
All suggestions will be attempted. (Assuming they are non-violent and harm no small animals)
5 comments:
One kid and five grandkids later--the only thing that worked was laying down with them or surrender.
Only trouble with laying down was I never got anything done except catching a few zzzz's myself because I fell asleep instead of sneaking out as planned :)
OR complete surrender which actually worked.
Kids got tired of being ignored as I went about doing my work and drifted off to their rooms and fell asleep.
Went something like this:
"It's quiet time--where are you suppose to be?"
"I can only hear/see you when you are where your suppose to be"
(it became sort of a rhime that I do not remember exactly--caused many giggles until they gave up and went to their designated areas)
Oh how I feel your pain on this one.
When Boo hit 4 she decided she didn't want to nap anymore. That is fine, but she needed the hour to mellow out, and recharge. We fought with her for months!
Finally we got a cd player, put it on the highest shelve of her book case and turned it on. She wasn't allowed to come out until the cd was completely done. We always put in some mellow kids tunes, or Veggie Tales, and she would drift for about an hour and be better than ever. It still works with her sometimes.
Okay ... I now have TWO that won't nap, so this is what we do ... and it works like a charm.
Every single afternoon, after lunch we pick out 5 treats for each child (5 M & M's, hersey kisses, 4 candies and a granola bar, etc.) We leave these on the kitchen table.
Then, we go up to their bedroom and read a book together. Then, they each pick out 5 or 6 books off the book shelf that they will look through, 2 puzzles each and a doll. I set the timer in their room for 60 minutes (just a little kitchen timer) and during that time they are to stay in their room and play with their things.
Each time one of them comes out or yells for me, I take one of their five treats away from the kitchen table, and I tell them I did so.
When their timer goes off, they come down to the living room and watch ONE show (30 minutes).
Then we all sit together and eat treats.
This gives me 90 minutes of free time each afternoon.
:)
Hope this helps.
I say surrender. I went through his with my Bubby when he was 2. I wanted him to take a nap - no I NEEDED him to take a nap!
He was outgrowing it faster than I was. I looked forward to those precious moments of quietness & sanity.
It got so frustrating to the both of us that I finally had to relent. I was losing patience with him because of it which wasn't fair to him and I started to feel pretty guilty about my frustration. He couldn't help that he'd grown out of his daily nap.
BUT, I put him to bed consistently at about 7:30 every night. He had his bath, we read, and then it was off to bed and he knew that was it. That was the compromise we came to. I hope you find something that works just right for you. If you want to make yourself feel better, watch Jon & Kate plus 8. They are going through he same thing only with 6, 3 year olds at once! They've outgrown their naptimes, but mom hasn't *L*
If you haven't checked out "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" do so. It's a fabulous book that changed our lives.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...Peanut is motivated by stickers so I made her this cheesey construction paper book and each day she takes a nap and each morning she stays in her bed until 7 AM she gets a sticker for each activity. The Duckling is nearly 4 1/2 and still naps. Sure there are some days she doesn't but for the most part even at her age she starts to meltdown at about noon and I know it's time. Wait too long and they're overtired and sleeping is a battle but if she's in bed by 12:30 or so I know she'll probably nap and if not nap she can 'read' her books and play with her ponies quietly thinking she's fooling me into thinking she's taking a nap. Then again she's an intorvert and needs that alone time each day too. When Peanut comes to that time we'll probably need a cage to keep her in her room.
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