Parents Giving Me A Hard Time About 5yr Old Napping

[SunflowerMama]

What do you tell parents that don't want their 5 year old napping?

I have 4 5 year olds (2 are my own) and they all still nap.

The other parents of the 5 year olds are starting to give me a hard time about having their kids nap. They think I should stop napping them so they can be ready for kinder.

On the weekends they don't nap.

I think if they are still falling asleep that their bodies still need the rest. I have always had nappers so don't know what to tell the other parents.

The other parents are friends of mine so it's hard to address this but they keep pressuring me to drop the naps (in a joking way) and I just want to put my foot down but what do I tell them?

[Meeko]

Put your foot down. I tell parents at sign up that when they feel their child has outgrown naps...they can give me two weeks notice. Every child naps. I have school age siblings that I have had since they were toddlers (ages 7, 9, 11 and 13) who have early out day on Friday's. They get here at 1:30 PM. They grab a blanket and they happily nap until 3PM. I don't require them to nap in the summer ...UNLESS they are noisy.

If the child falls asleep easily, then he/she still needs a nap. And YOU need a break!

I am quite sure they don't want to work up to 12 hours straight without a break.

[Blackcat31]

I have a rest time. EVERYONE is required to rest. They don't have to sleep but they do have to rest. It won't kill or harm any child to lay down and rest. If they are still awake after a bit, I will let them get up and do something quiet but so far, no one is still awake.

I am like Meeko and make it VERY clear to my parents that I require everyone to rest. If they are against their child resting, then I am not the program or place for them. If I had SA kids who were awake and didn't rest I may feel differently but I don't.

I think our Kindy kids still rest in school too so that wouldn't be a valid argument here.

Either way, I think that you should continue doing what you do and if the parents feel that strongly about it, then they can find alternate care arrangements that better meets their needs. Nothing wrong with that.

[cheerfuldom]

I would start calling it "quiet time"

The kids don't have to nap anymore (but if they fall asleep, dont wake them).

I don't purposefully keep kids up, everyone has "quiet" time of some sort. That part is not negotiable.

[Kiki]

I have a rest time. EVERYONE is required to rest. They don't have to sleep but they do have to rest. It won't kill or harm any child to lay down and rest. If they are still awake after a bit, I will let them get up and do something quiet but so far, no one is still awake.

I am like Meeko and make it VERY clear to my parents that I require everyone to rest. If they are against their child resting, then I am not the program or place for them. If I had SA kids who were awake and didn't rest I may feel differently but I don't.

I think our Kindy kids still rest in school too so that wouldn't be a valid argument here.

Either way, I think that you should continue doing what you do and if the parents feel that strongly about it, then they can find alternate care arrangements that better meets their needs. Nothing wrong with that.

Our schedule at the door/sign on the outside states that 1:00-3:00 PM is 'rest time'. I don't call it nap time because there are those parents out there that don't want their kids 'napping'. Seems silly to me, my oldest gets home from school on Friday early and takes a nap every week, so I know most kids are tired halfway through their days. But whatever floats those parent's little boats I suppose, if they don't like rest time, they can find a program that doesn't do it. Which btw-in Utah they wont. We are required the 2 hours of rest time here, most parents just aren't aware of that. ::

[daycare]

I agree with what others have said HOWEVER,

I would find out about your kinder program. Find out if the kids will be taking naps once they start going. If they do, then your cool.

if they don't,

I would start breaking them of naps about 1 month before they are to start school.

My school district does not nap the kinders. I went down and talked to a kinder teacher and asked her what I could do to prepare them for kinder that was not about academics and she said:

self help skills, teach them to wait and take turns and ween them of naps.

I also do not offer services for children who do not nap, however, for this one month out of the year, I will have the soon to be grads of my class stay awake.

[littlemissmuffet]

My handbook states all children need to nap until kinder. I don't take kinders or schoolage so that means everyone in my care naps. If they've outgrown nap, they've outgrown me and must give their one month notice...

Of course, suddenly it's ok if their child naps.

[christinaskids]

I would just explain its only helping not hurting and i get absolutely no break all day long and my "break" is spent doing stuff anyway.

[mac60]

I just added to my handbook about kindergarteners....I will discontinue their nap 2 weeks before school starts. Until then, nighty nite.

[Jenniferdawn]

I may not be in the majority here, but I think it is worth finding a compromise of sorts. Its good to keep a quiet time, but I am a provider and a mom who happens to have 2 out of 3 of my kids sleep HORRIBLE at night if they got a nap past 2 1/2. I can't get them to sleep til at least ten because a nap energizes them so much. Yet with out a nap, they fall asleep beautifully by 8. And I NEED my evening time alone with my husband to recharge my batteries. So my kids, and a few of my older dck who's parents experience the same frustration of their kids not sleeping at night, get a rest time, a quiet time with a movie or books. Selfishly I would love to have everyone sleep, but I know I will pay for it later in the evening if they do. And so will my dcp which makes them grumpy too. So if your dcp are experiencing the same, I feel for them. Maybe they are falling asleep because they go to bed so late because they are taking naps during the day, YKWIM?

[youretooloud]

I would compromise. My kids all watch a movie or a few tv shows at nap time. About half fall asleep. The other half rests quietly.

Anyone who doesn't rest quietly, is sent to lay in the next room alone, where there's nothing else to do except nap.

[Country Kids]

OK, today is the first day I have had a parent ask me not to have their child sleep very long at naptime. I guess child didn't sleep till 10:00 last night and back up at 6:00. Child is quite a handful but today I've put them back to bed and its not first thing in the morning. Behavior is out of control.

The think is though this child is a BEAR if they don't take a nap or get their full nap out either. So either way this childs sleep will be really messed up. This child 95% of the time does fall asleep when they lay down and on an average will sleep 2+ hours each time.

I really don't want to fight this child every morning because they aren't sleeping at night but I don't want to fight them every afternoon because they are tired from not sleeping at naptime either!

Not trying to highjack but since this post was up and it came up from me wanted to see about some feed back also!

[Childminder]

Children at five are in need of 10-12 hours per day so if the parent is putting them down at 7 or 8 and they sleep till 7 or 8 in the morning all is good.
Here is just one link that gives this information:

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/sleep-children

Our state sent out a chart similar to this that I copied and gave to parents. It always seems to quiet the crowd.

It states in our regulations that a rest time is required until a child is in school full time. Sometimes if the child is not in full day kinder this continues until first grade. Even in public schools the children have to take a blanket and mat to kinder for their rest time. Check with your district and see if kinders take one.

Or like some providers have said. "If they are too old for nap they are too old for my daycare."

[Jenniferdawn]

I think as providers we have to realize that all kids are different. Some need less sleep, some need more. I think it's wrong to suggest that parents are bad parents if they don't want their kids to take a nap during the day. It's our job (in my opinion) to work with the parents, to find out how the child is doing at home and try to make it a win win situation for everyone. I don't make major compromises, but on nap issues, maybe because I have btdt with my own kids, I do listen to the parents and find out what will work for us both. Have any of you experienced that with your own children? Them not going to bed because of taking a nap? Or am I the only one??

[CheekyChick]

I don't think 4 and 5 year olds should be forced to nap. To make them lay on their cot for 2 hours is just miserable. We have our older children (4's & 5's) lay on their cots for 20 minutes. If they don't fall asleep, we give them books. When they are tired of books, they can get up and play quietly.