Should I try to get them to drop their naps?

My 3.5 year olds still nap daily from approx 1-4. They don't tend to fight naps too bad. The problem comes when it's time to go to bed at night. They are not sleepy and don't want to go to their rooms. I try to get them down by 9; however, often DD will still be awake and fighting the system at 10 . . . as she is right now. I would be willing to shorten their naptime; however, if I wake them then they are grumps. I have told them and encouraged them to just play in their rooms during naptime which I often call rest time at this point. DD won't play at all even though she has lots of her favorite toys in her room and DS will play for a few minutes and then will start coming out of his room.

I would love some suggestions on how to make the transition and how to teach them how to have quiet time in their rooms for an extended period of time.

TIA!

 

Have you tried playing with their nap schedule a bit? Perhaps moving it back a little may shorten it. We ended up moving our kids' naps back when they seemed to be giving them up and it solved the problem. Don't know if it would help here, but thought I'd throw it out.

 

I have the same problem right now. I actually have one that needs a nap and the other doesnt really need it. I have tried to do the rest time approach to it, but they just have a big party in their room. I think that moving their nap time back a little will help... I am going to try that!

 

I have heard of people putting together a "nap box". It's a box/bin full of quiet toys and books that are used only for quiet/naptime.

When we started cutting out naps (due to a new babysitting job I have) I started doing mandatory rest time on the couch and would pop in a movie. It was the best way for me to get them to sit still for a bit of a rest, without them falling asleep and having to wake them up ( :crazy: ) before we had to go and babysit. It worked well but I found out that my girls REALLY still need naps. So we still do naps about 3-4 days per week just to catch up a bit. On those days we put them down earlier than before so I don't have a total meltdown fest on my hands when I need to wake them. It's an abbreviated nap (1.5-2 hours) but at least it's something.

 

Out of necessity (we have to pick big brother up from school) mine are on an abbreviated nap schedule during the week. They nap 1.5-2 hours from 12-2. DD still definitely needs it, but a lot of the time I hear DS up there talking quietly to his lovies and looking at books.

On the weekends, we were letting them direct the naps and they were taking 3+ hour naps and then fighting bedtime at night. So, we set a new rule that we get them up no later than 3 o'clock, regardless of when they got quiet. We haven't had any more bedtime problems since.

 

I also think that moving their naps back might help. The girls still nap during the week at daycare, and they need it. They lay down no later than 1 and are usually awake by 3. Weekends are more challenging, but we do have rest time. They can lay and watch a movie or read. I like Michelle's idea of a nap box. :good:

 

I would say shorten the naps. They may be grumps at first, but I think they will get use to it. I don't let mine sleep past 3:30, but there bedtime is between 8:15-8:30. Regardless of what time they go down...I only let them sleep a max of 2.5 hours.

 

I think that if I were in your situation, I would try to start naps at noon and not let them sleep more than 2 hours - eventually they will get used to it and not be sooo grumpy. Just a thought. These things are so hard to figure out!

 

We haven't had any success with this magical "quiet time" that people speak of. My girls dropped their weekend naps gradually around age 3.5 (Amy just started refusing to nap, and Sarah would still love to nap but isn't going to if Amy doesn't), but the only way we can get them to leave us alone for even half an hour is by putting a movie on. We tried having consequences for coming out of the room, etc., but in the end I just decided that the enforcement wasn't worth it -- I would rather let them watch a movie and then just play around the house, instead of fighting about quiet time every day.

The good news is I did get used to not having the down time. It was harder on me than it was on them for the first month or two! But as they get older, they get better & better at playing independently, so even if we're in the same room, I can still get some stuff done or even (gasp) read a magazine.

And it is SOOOO nice to have them go to bed more easily. They still nap at preschool most days, and aren't asleep till 9:30 or 10 (though they have to stay in their room after 8), but on weekends they go straight down around 7:30/8:00 without a fuss.

The other thing we sometimes do, on days when they have had a nap but we still don't want to be dealing with them till 9:00, is tell them that after they're all ready for bed, they can have a "party" (their word) in their room until 8:30 or so. The condition is that they stay in there and leave us alone! But they're allowed to play with toys and basically do whatever they want. So we aren't really forcing them to go to bed earlier than they want to, but at the same time DH and I still get some adult time in the evening.

 

ITA!! :good: