To Nap or Not to Nap - San Antonio,TX

My kids were all different. My oldest was 5 and in kindergarten half day. He would take one before school. My daughter gave them up at 2. My youngest is 4 and mostly gave them up. He will sometimes still take one though. He is in bed at 7:30 most nights even if he does take one.

Both of my kids were finished with naps in their early 3's. I agree with you, they might get tired and very grouchy by early evening but I'd rather deal with that than kids up until 9:30. Some kids still nap at 3 but rarely do I hear of a napping 5 yr old. I honestly have to side with you on this one. If you are napping, you have two struggles (one at nap time and one at bed time). If you don't nap, you have one or maybe no struggles. Men also understand that women can't just lay down and be asleep in 3 seconds. My husband is the same way.

At 3 and 5 mine were both done napping. I agree with you, I loved having early bedtime, mine would be out by 6:45 piece of cake! You may want to have an hour or so of quiet time, when they need to be playing quietly in the bedroom or looking at books, just to give everyone down time.

As for you two disagreeing, I agree that the one who deals with the issue gets final say on the decision, but do make sure that you are listening to his input and maki him feel part of the decision. He may be offering a different opinion just to feel that he's being heard.

try the book "healthy sleep habits, happy child" by dr weissbluth.
many kids are "done" with naps by the time they are 3, but i know plenty of kids who nap (or could really use a nap) who are older. My sister has 9yr old twins, plus a 2 yr old and a 6mo old. the 9s don't nap, but there is "quiet time" in the house. you don't have to sleep, but no TV, quiet reading/lying down in your room. when my son was transitioning, around age 3, it was a nightmare! he was cranky, so i was reluctant to take him anywhere, but he wasn't asleep either, so i couldn't get anything done. arg! my dtr is 3+ and still naps, with a skip now and then. i found that on days she does nap, it's a good nap, 2.5 hrs. when she does not get a nap, i put her to bed 30 mins earlier. it makes a huge difference.

Kids are all different, and some need more sleep than others. Both of mine need a lot of sleep. They both took naps every day for 2-3 hours until they went to kindergarten, and then still napped on the weekends until they were 6. They also went to bed happily at 7:00. My 7 year old still goes to bed at 7:00. My 13 year old just knows when he needs sleep. The other night he went to bed at 8:00 just because he was tired. Usually he stays up late during the summer, but he was tired and knew his body needed rest. My point is, figure out what your kids need. Do they still need naps? Are they cranky during the day without naps? If so, put them down for naps. If they are fine without naps, then they're ready to give them up. Good luck with your decision.

I think if the children nap early like after lunch that would be good; you may to want to limit the time frame they nap. Then make sure they have some busy activities to burn off energy before bedtime.

They should nap if they are tired and need to.

My son is 4.5, he is napping now. He naps every afternoon. He needs it. He gets tired and still needs a nap.
If not, he gets overly hyper and turns into an over-tired fussy Troll.
He still goes to bed at night, just fine.

My oldest was almost 4 1/2 when she gave up daily naps and my youngest was only 2 1/2 when she gave up hers. (I should mention their bedtime was 7:30 until they were over 5, then it was 8:00...and during the school year they woke up about 6:15) However, I still encourage them to take naps, or at least have quiet time in bed with a book, whenever they didn't get enough sleep the night before or are sick or whatever. I think its good to let our bodies dictate whether we need a nap on a particular day or not =) oh, and prior to giving up naps altogether, I always had the rule that if they weren't asleep after 1 hour, they could just get up, because if they need a nap, they should be able to fall asleep within an hour. If not, their body just doesn't need it that day =) don't stress about it...if they're not getting enough sleep, you'll know!

My oldest gave them up at 4. My youngest is 7 and still takes a nap at least once per weekend and sometimes during the week. If they are overwrought and just seem like they cannot control themselves, it is nap time!!! Mostly for you.

I have 2 children ages 6 & 3. My oldest gave up naps around 2 1/2 yrs old mainly because I spent more time trying to get her to take a nap & stay asleep then she was actually napping - spent over and hour putting her back in her room, etc & fighting it so I gave up with the napping. It was more trouble trying to get her take a nap than not taking one & taking care of a newborn at the same time. My youngest is 3 1/2 and she doesn't really take naps anymore that much. They go to bed about 8 pm and usually wake up at 7 am to 8 am for the most part. I would say if your children are showing signs that they need a nap, like getting cranky & fussy and obviously tired than they still need a nap maybe for an hour or so, no longer than 2 hrs. Occasionally, my 3 yr old will take a nap and it is usually because she either woke up really early or she had a very busy active day. They both sleep well at night.

well my daughter is 2 and some days she naps some days she doesnt it depends on when she wakes up what we did that day and when she went to bed the night before but the past few days she hasnt napped untill 4 or so if she does and is in bed by 9 but usually isnt asleep until 10 or so

we are right there with you.. my son is 4 (as of june 11) my daughter is 5 1/2 (december 20) I gave up on naps about 2 weeks ago.. they will fall asleep quickly for a nap.. and sleep for 1.5-2 hours.. but then they will not go to bed at night they are running around till 9 or 930.. I charted my younger childs sleep for about a week.. and he sleeps 11 hours.. whether it is all at night or a nap and less nighttime sleep.

so now we are trying to get them in bed by 730 and they sleep till 630 or so.. 11 hours.. there have been a couple of days that my son was so tired we had to put him down for nap as he was just a wreck.

This is a hard transition to no naps..

All of mine were two years old. First was almost three. Second was 2.5 years. Third was right after she turned two.

Three is still a normal age for naps, but age five is a bit on the older side. Most five year olds probably aren't napping anymore.

I agree with you on the naps. It's the three year old I'd worry the most about. If he can make it without being a total wreck without a nap, I'd go for that. but many three year olds do need them.

babysleepsite.com might have some info you'd like. it's good for babies, and I think it might have some info for 3 yr olds...maybe 5 yr olds too.

My daughter will be 2 next week and she still naps daily. Some days (like today) she needs 2 naps. My son is 3 years and 5 months and we try to make sure he naps everyday (he turns into a big ugly troll by 2:00 if he doesn't) but some days he just won't regardless of how long we try and those are the longest/hardest days for me.

I second Kate F's advice to read Healthy Sleep Habit, Happy Child. We were having bedtime battles every night with my then 3.5 year old. After reading the book we stopped naps and moved her bedtime to 6:30 and it has made life easier for the whole family.

You know your children best and know when they need or don't need naps, especially since you are with them a majority of the time. The thing I've found about naps is that if they need to sleep and you keep them up it won't necessarily make bed time easier because they will be so overtired that they won't go to sleep. So you have to find the best balance. If skipping the afternoon nap works for you and they are able to go to sleep at night, then that is what you need to do. All kids are different and their sleep schedules do change often, so you may have to do different things at different times. If you find that they are too overtired at night and it's difficult to get them to sleep, then they may need an early afternoon nap, but maybe only let them sleep for 1 hour. It's definitely a balancing act and there is no 1 way to do it. You may need to explain to your husband that because each kid is different you will have to adjust depending on what they need. Setting a schedule does not work for all kids. Good luck!