Anyone else's on open cots at daycare and cribs at home?

I'm not looking to switch the boys to toddler beds until they either crawl out of their beds or around 2.5 y/o. However at daycare now that they are in the "toddler" room they are on open cots and the daycare said they do wonderful at laying down and going to sleep so I'm wondering if this will make the transition easier? Or will it still be a novelty at home?

 

I don't have kids in day care but I did transition my DD around 19-20 months (she was crawling out of her crib). Initially she did real well with the transition and then she realized she had some freedom and had a very hard time going down for a nap or bedtime because she wanted to play. Once the novelty wore off, she's asleep within 20 minutes. I really think it depends on your comfort level. At daycare, the incentive to do well on their cots (which is totally awesome that they are doing well) is that the other kids are sleeping and an adult is still in the room. At your house, if they share a room, they may initially look at it as time to play. Is there any way you can give it trial run but be able to change back to the crib if you want?

 

I'm sure we could do a trial run but really I'm not changing them for another year or so! I just wondered if anyone else had experience. You are right though, at daycare naptime is pitch black with music and everyone is laying down. At home they share a room and I only have black out curtains but its nothing like the dark at daycare! We don't plan on letting them have toys in their room so hopefully the novelty will wear off soon as they won't have anything to play with! We'll revisit in a year...honestly their cribs are so low I don't think they'll be able to climb out of them but then again, sometimes I wonder how they do 1/2 the stuff they do! :laughing:

 

our daycare does floor mats for nap time. i don't believe for one instant that my guys would actually stay in bed unless i sat in there the way the instructors sit with them at school. that's how they do it, they lay them down and sit with the kids and when one pops up they say, "on your tummy" to get them to lay back down. i'm not spending our home naptimes on nap patrol! we're keeping the cribs at home until someone crawls out!

 

When we took the girls to daycare, this was the situation for us. I just didn't see how the daycare was going to keep them in their cots when they were so used to sleeping in the cribs. However, they did great at daycare, but in no way where ready for that transition at home. I think a lot of the reason they stay so well at daycare is because all the other kids are...peer pressure sort of...and as pp said, there is someone there to make sure they stay put...but if I had tried that at home they would have been all over the place. I still waited until they were almost three to switch them even though they were sleeping this way at daycare. It just would not have worked for us that early.

 

When my oldest was in daycare, he was switched to a cot at 1 year and did find after a day or two. I agree with PP that peer pressure is a great thing for kids that age. We ended up switching DS1 to a big boy bed at 22 mths due to needing his crib for one of the twins and he did great with the transition. I definitely think the fact that he had been on a cot for so long at daycare made out transition at home much easier.

 

My oldest was about 14 months when we transitioned him to a regular bed (a boxspring and mattress on the floor) because he was about to begin daycare with a cot and I wanted to transition him before he started. He hardly stayed in the bed, instead he ended up on the floor in a pile of blankets. At first we tried to keep putting him back in bed but to no avail, so finally we just let him migrate to the floor (what's the harm, right?). After a while he did end up staying in bed. Funny thing is, though, now at 6yo he still likes to sleep on the floor (but now he's old enough that we can reason with him ).