2 Hour Naps @ Daycare?

[daycarediva]

Your nine month old only sleeps two hours when with you? I could see that for a 2 year old, although most of my twos take a solid three he nap, but an infant needs sleep, just as much as they need food. I imagine they go to bed easily bc they got to spend the day with mom with very little naps and are exhausted. The days they are at daycare, they miss you and come home well rested and ready to spend time with you, so instead of putting them to bed at 7 on those nights, go for a long walk, play at the park, cuddle and read books and lay them down later, like 9, after a warm bath. If your daycare is anything like most, your infant prob still gets a morning and afternoon nap and your toddler prob has rest time from 12-3 or similar hrs. I can totally understand not having a 6 year old nap, unless they are tired, but 9 mos and 2 yrs would be required to nap as they need it for healthy growth and development and are usually VERY tired after playing all morning. Maybe speak with your provider and see what their schedule is during the day so you can adjust your routine at home to accommodate it. If your kids are not used to napping and are only two days a week, I imagine your provider is in a tough spot trying to maintain consistency, so I would be delicate about how you approach it or you may end up finding a new daycare, and like I said, napping is pretty much non negotiable for those young ages in most daycares, so you may be searching for something that is hard to find. Good luck to you!

Unless you have worked in/ran a daycare, it's impossible to get parents to understand this.

They say "Daycare is lazy" but daycare is doing what is developmentally appropriate, state required (rest period) and best for the child. At daycare they are BUSY all day and MOST children I have cared for really NEED a nap. There is very little down time, unlike home.

Why can't we say parents are lazy? (or just want an easy night with kids who pass out from exhaustion right after dinner?)

[Ariana]

I have seen it time and time again, parents blaming me for crappy night sleep. I lie and tell them their kid didn't nap and by some miracle night sleep improves. I am so over it

None of these kids are getting proper sleep and I have seen it. A 2-3-4 yr old going to be at 9pm?? My 8 yr old goes to bed at 8:30 and my 4 yr old is in bed at 7. They both wake up at 7-7:30am. If your kid comes to me exhausted they nap. End of story.

Having a space at a daycare is kind of like buying season tickets to football. You may not like the choices the coaches are making but no one forced you to sign up.

[Unregistered]

Still trying to get my 4year old asleep!

Still trying to get my 4year old asleep! If he wouldn't of had that 2hour nap at school bet he would be asleep by 9-9:30pm!.... He stays up so late because he simply isn't tired at night because he was made to fall asleep in a dark cozy room for 2or3 hours! Then it's crazzzy hard to get him to wake up in the morning because he went to bed so late! I don't get a 2or3hour nap so I'm dead tired during the week after staying up so late trying to get my child asleep! Love our weekends he gos with me to my full time job and i also have my own grooming business on the side. On the weekends he gets no nap and is ready for bed on Saturday and Sunday and wakes up great for going to work with Me! I wouldn't even use a daycare but it's not practical for me to take him to work 7days a week while I work 2jobs just to make it. It's very sad there are cold heart people that do not understand what parents go through. They can't do there job/part to help out the parent a little bit...

[Unregistered]

Still trying to get my 4year old asleep!

Oh and it's really 11:30pm

[flying_babyb]

Oh and it's really 11:30pm

Yes but if your child is allowed to stay up all the kids will want to, and wont understand why they cant. even if your child is quiet the others will want to watch what he or she is doing or copy them. Makes it hard. Im guessing your childs not being forced to sleep but asked to lay on a cot and rest and falls asleep. You could ask your daycare to wake your child after a hour, which would mean better night sleep. do you have a nightly routine?

[daycarediva]

Still trying to get my 4year old asleep! If he wouldn't of had that 2hour nap at school bet he would be asleep by 9-9:30pm!.... He stays up so late because he simply isn't tired at night because he was made to fall asleep in a dark cozy room for 2or3 hours! Then it's crazzzy hard to get him to wake up in the morning because he went to bed so late! I don't get a 2or3hour nap so I'm dead tired during the week after staying up so late trying to get my child asleep! Love our weekends he gos with me to my full time job and i also have my own grooming business on the side. On the weekends he gets no nap and is ready for bed on Saturday and Sunday and wakes up great for going to work with Me! I wouldn't even use a daycare but it's not practical for me to take him to work 7days a week while I work 2jobs just to make it. It's very sad there are cold heart people that do not understand what parents go through. They can't do there job/part to help out the parent a little bit...

I have a state required rest period (it's a regulation for me to have this, cannot 'opt out') and all children lay on their mats for 30 minutes. After that, children not sleeping are able to get up and go into a side room adjacent to our nap room IF they're quiet.

I say if it isn't working for you, find a program that does. If your child fell asleep at my daycare, I would not be waking him up either. You cannot blame daycare for something that is very necessary in a GROUP care setting. Everyone has to be on the same schedule or it's chaos and impossible to meet the NEEDS of each child in care.

At 4, what about afternoon preschool?

Are you wearing him out at night? my daycare kids go to siblings sports, play outside, playground, and have a solid dinner/bath/story/bedtime routine. NONE of my parents have issues. They also nap them on the weekends when needed (eg. child did not sleep in to make up for that time)

[hwichlaz]

Ummm yes

me too, if I had to drive home from work, I'd be lucky not to fall asleep on the way

[Trust DayCare]

Every child has (and should) their nap time, it promotes health both in mentally and physically.

What we must concern is not about range of time but more to quality of the sleep or nap.

If a child sleep in a noisy environment, they might not get a quality sleep even if they sleep for 3-4 hours.

But if they get good quality sleep a one and half hour sleep is more than enough.

It is true that lack of sleep or nap could lead to distraction of focus in learning something new at daycare or at home.

But forcing a children without knowing the background of why they could not take a nap at the daycare schedule is a "rude" way on handling or nurturing children and is not acceptable. (May be the child just wake up at 9am and if you force them to sleep at 10 or 11am they might get frustated instead of following the daycare schedule)

So communication with parents is crucial and have to tell them to adjust the children wake up time if possible.

Mostly children would sleepy in 5-6 hours after they wake up and do some activities.

Best,

Trust DayCare