Oh, I never thought I'd be asking myself this question. Should I allow my 3 year old to nap or not? I've had other friends deal with this same issue, but until now, I could not fully understand or sympathize. (which, I think, is true about many things parenting/discipline related!)
Lydia went for a good two whole months without napping in the early spring. Then - thankfully! - over the past three weeks, she has begun napping once again. She has always NEEDED a nap, but many times refused to just lay down long enough to fall asleep. Anyways, this newly added part of the day delighted me...until I realized that she wasn't going to bed. She would stay awake, be loud, cry, get upset and just be plain not tired at bedtime. And bedtime, well - that comes and ain't nothing stopping it. If you're a parent, you know that God gives you grace enough until a certain hour, a certain minute in your day. And then - BAM!!- you have to put the kids down, or you might explode. Sooooo, when she started having bedtime issues, I had to start assessing the nap time.
Does she need it? Yes. Obviously, or she wouldn't be falling asleep. And she sleeps so soundly, she's even mad when I try to wake her up. I am not forcing her to sleep; I always give her books to look at during "quiet time" and then allow "quiet play time." But, now that she's napping quite often, I may have to start discouraging sleep!
Waking-up a sleeping child really goes against everything I have been taught about parenting. And, as a stay at home mom, NAP time is one of the most precious times of the day. Just think about it, if I have to wake-up a sleeping child, our whole nap time is cut short, because that child won't just sit up in bed and play. They'll be ready to come out of their room and be with me. Oh, the craziness that motherhood brings!!
And now I will go and wake-up Lydia. She's been napping for 20 minutes and that's quite enough. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment