After three and a half years of looking forward to the most special time in a parent’s daily routine, I am sadly saying goodbye to naptime. We spent the last two months fighting with Erin to get her to stay in her bed, to stay in her room, to stay out of Adrian’s room, to stay out of Adrian’s crib, to stay out of Adrian’s face, and eventually we smartened up enough to realize that Erin was done with naps.
We were lucky enough, for a while, to have two kids on identical naps schedules. On weekdays this meant free time for me to work (watch “Mad Men”) or clean the house (watch “True Blood”) or do various home improvement chores (watch “Entourage”); on weekends this meant time alone with Emily so we could reconnect (watch “Royal Pains”). Now that Erin has stopped participating in the special Help Mommy And Daddy Relax Project 2010 I have had to figure out new and imaginative ways to keep Erin from getting into the medicine cabinet and drinking two ounces of children’s ibuprofen from a poorly-closed bottle and making me call poison control only to have them laugh at me. (True story, except for the laughing. Apparently there’s nothing to worry about before six ounces. So yay me.)
So here’s a little list of things you too can do once your child has decided to give up the nap and involve you in two more hours or parenting per day:
1) Buy some headphones, lock your bedroom door, and stream “Veronica Mars” on Netflix while the kid babysits herself in the kitchen, hopefully next to that cabinet where all the cleaning supplies are stored that you never did get around to child-proofing.
2) Buy some smaller headphones, lock your bedroom door, and play “Cars” for the kid in her own room on that portable DVD player you finally caved and bought right before the last road trip you went on.
3) Buy some crayons, and a Magic Eraser, lock your bedroom door and see if there’s a “Top Chef” rerun you can watch for an hour before you have to go see what art now decorates your walls.
4) Make sure your kid’s room is clean, lock your bedroom door and make bets with your partner about how many toys will be on the floor when you open the door again at a randomly selected interval.
5) Buy a webcam, Skype grandma, lock your bedroom door and let grandma babysit for an hour from the laptop in the living room. In fact, just have grandma come over while you and your partner flee to Vegas in order to cure a Man Cold.
I guess what I’m saying is…make sure the lock on your bedroom door works.
My husband managed only a handful of posts on his blogging endeavor http://naptimeprojects.tumblr.com/ before its premice became moot…
Ha!
Natpime, we knew thee well. I vote for #5.
Good choice.
I would be mourning the loss of those naps big time, I had to break drew of napping the summer before he started kindergarten (ie right after he turned 5)… but I can't say that he actually napped everyday… he just knew that he had to go to his room and CHILL quietly for at least an hour, he could look through books, he could play with matchbox cars so long as he was quiet and probably 80% of the time he actually fell asleep. Perhaps you can do the quiet time thing too??
I've heard tell of this "quiet time" legend.
"Quiet time"? That's a myth, isn't it? Luckily, my boy still naps most days, but the rest of the time he's running around, climbing something he shouldn't, and/or yelling his head off (sometimes all at the same time). The boy barely sits down to eat, and that's only because he can still fit into his high chair.
I could see the whole "lock the bedroom door" theme coming.
You were on the right track with the liquid medicine. Try something a little stronger, something with an antihistamine. Naptime will return!
Cheers,
Casey
We enforced the quiet time until she started kindergarten last month with great success. Now with my son, I can already tell I'll be locking myself in my room. HA!
We're in the midst of this now. Our too-big-for-his-britches 4 yr old has begun boycotting naps. We're still vainly trying to enforce the "quiet time" notion to encourage him to at least lie down and be quiet if not actually nod off. So far, this is sorta working.