To Nap (Late) or Not to Nap-That is the Question

Tue, 03/02/2010 - 4:41pm |

DiggyDaddy

Our boys still nap. Thank goodness for that. Q, our five year old, takes about a two hour nap each day at preschool and on weekends. JT, our soon to be three year old, can usually pull off a two to three our nap. We try to make sure that our boys nap early enough so they're still sleepy at night.

JT was home with me today. I had a voiceover audition this morning so I left him with his grandma, Nana-C, for a couple of hours. Actually, three hours. By the time we got home it was two hours past his nap-time.

So here where my choices:

A) Nap JT anyway, which means he’d sleep late into he afternoon and most likely create a battle of wills this evening when we try to put him to bed and he's not sleepy.

B) Don’t nap him, deal with a cranky boy in the afternoon but enjoy a quieter evening because we put JT to bed early.

Let’s think about this…

If one of our boys naps too late, the evening can be rough. Trying to get our boys to sleep at night, when they are not sleepy leads to a lot of whining, fighting, complaining, crying, debating, yelling and sulking…and that’s just Mami and me.

On the other hand, if we find that we’ve missed an afternoon nap, and the precious quiet time it brings, it’s better to let it go. Yes, our child might be cranky and difficult but by evening he’s pretty much begging us to put him to sleep.

And after one boy falls asleep Mami and I are able to gang up on the second one and before you know it we’re alone sipping wine watching not-so-late TV; all because we differed gratification until the evening.

It seems obvious that differed gratification is the logical choice. So what was my decision?

Delayed gratification sucks! I’ll take the three hours of quiet time now, please.

I’ve also got my fingers in my ears and am going, “La la la la la” to the voice in my head saying that’s saying, “God’s speed to you, man -- 'cause you'll need it.”

Re: Wait a Minute

Submitted by DiggyDaddy on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 10:43pm.

Yea, they do. And you're not the first to do a double take. Life is funny like that. Yours make innocent joke references. Mine nap. Go figure.

But I'm freaking out about next year when Q goes to Kinder. There gonna drum the napping right out of him. See what happens when you turn the kids over to "the Man".

Oh, that it could last for ever.

Wait a minute. Your 5 and 3

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 5:48pm.

Wait a minute. Your 5 and 3 year olds still nap?!? I don't think I can ever read your blog again. At least, not without having to smack you first.

Jealousy is ugly, isn't she?

http://tracey-justanothermommyblog.blogspot.com/

When in doubt Nap

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 7:04pm.

Yes nap especially if you are the father you don't want to be grouchy around people. If you are the baby you should definitely nap not to be in a cranky mood, and it will also keep you looking younger!

"beauty sleep"

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