who else has a 4yo who still naps?

[♥ms.pacman♥]

bc sometimes i think I have the only one! LOL. He naps 2 hrs at daycare and then on weekends naps a solid 2, sometimes 3 hours.

I guess i've been really noticing that this year DS has gotten lots of invitations from classmates to birthday parties. We have only gone to 2 out of the more than dozen of them, because they are typically something like 130-330, 2-4pm or 3-430 which is DS's naptime (sometimes he naps from 230-5..waking DS from a nap = not for the faint of heart, lol). I feel bad declining but my DS is a BEAR without his nap and the excitement/stimulation of a bday party would do us all in! The two we went to, one was 10-12 and the other was 11-1 and provided pizza lunch for the kids.

I just find it so funny as i'm already starting to get invitations for DD during that time frame (so i guess most 3yos dont' nap either?)..which I am so excited about bc DD (almost 3) has given up her weekend nap so she can actually go! LOL. I'm guessing DD is the more "normal" one?

[HannaAddict]

All three of mine took naps at four! But we were able to push through and do things like parties, etc. and survived. I would give a party a try and not be set in stone with naptime at age 4. He might sleep in the car on the way home, but I would at least give it a try.

[Momit]

My DS was a few months past 5 when he gave up his nap! I often felt like I was the only one with a napper. Selfishly, I enjoyed the downtime and I also liked that he got to hang out with DH and play after dinner. Now that he doesn't nap je is wiped out by dinnertime. But it was challenging when people wanted to do parties, playdates etc. in the afternoon. He actually almost slept through his own 4th birthday party!

[carolinacool]

Not me, but my friend's DS turned 5 in the fall and he still naps every day. A solid two hours at day care and on the weekend. Last month we were trying to set something up on a Saturday and her DS wanted to make sure he could still nap. LOL While it's still several months away from him starting kindergarten, I know she's trying to figure out how to break him of the habit because he won't be able to do that when he starts school. He does go to bed much later than most children that age, usually around 10 or so.

I think your daughter is normal. My DS turned 4 in December, and he never naps at school anymore. If he's had a big day on the weekend, he'll sometimes fall asleep but I wouldn't say he's a regular napper.

[PZMommy]

My DS is 4 1/2. He takes a two hour nap at daycare. At home he takes about an hour nap, but he also is able to sleep in later vs getting up early for school. If he has to he can survive without a nap, but my 2 1/2 yr old needs a nap which holds us back.

[94bruin]

My just turned 5yo napped regularly until 1 month ago. I was thinking about how to wear her off her naps since Kindergarten is only 6mos away. Now, most days, she reads quietly in bed for an hour before I have to get her up to go pick up big sister from school. On weekends, she'll only nap if we've had some great (as in physical) outing that tires her out.

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[lalasmama]

My DS was a few months past 5 when he gave up his nap! I often felt like I was the only one with a napper. Selfishly, I enjoyed the downtime and I also liked that he got to hang out with DH and play after dinner. Now that he doesn't nap je is wiped out by dinnertime. But it was challenging when people wanted to do parties, playdates etc. in the afternoon. He actually almost slept through his own 4th birthday party!

:yeahthat: with my DD... except she did sleep through her party! It was in the evening, and she fell asleep on the way home. It was a small party, so everyone just came over a few days later.

[ckso]

DD is 5 and she still naps about half the time. If there's a party to go to, she will skip it but will end up falling asleep in the car on the way home


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[ZeeBaby]

DD2 was a hardcore napper until she went to PreK. Most of the PreK kids don't nap and I think that helped her break the habit. It is a struggle for her and she is often very cranky at night and falls asleep in the car on our way home. I would also try the party to see how he does without the nap. Likely he will just nap after.

[scrooks]

My dd napped until 5. Ds1.... Not so much. For me he stopped napping essentially when she did. I think late nappers are awesome. Until recently I honestly I think he still needed the nap but he just refused.

[AngelaS]

Mine all napped or at the very least had rest time every afternoon thru kindergarten. (The joys of homeschooling!)

[belovedgandp]

I think it has a lot to do with total hours of sleep. My oldest was skipping naps before 2 and they were completely gone by a couple months after 2. But he could sleep 12-14 hours straight at night. We had really busy Thursdays back then including staying out a bit past his bedtime in the evening. He could go to bed at 8:30 and sleep until 11 the next day. We had that luxury since he didn't have to get up in the morning.

When on routine and up early for school, the younger ones kept a nap until a little after 3. Summer was the end of that because we would go-go-go and they could sleep in the next day. None of my kids have ever had the internal alarm clock that gets them out of bed at the same time each morning. Knock on something for me; I like my sleep.

[maestramommy]

DD3 doesn't nap anymore, but DD1 and two napped until halfway through their K year. That would make DD1 6.5 and DD2 5.5 when they finally stopped. DD3 can't fall asleep if she naps longer than 30 minutes but she will drop off in the car if we go out in the afternoon.

[twowhat?]

I think it has a lot to do with total hours of sleep. My oldest was skipping naps before 2 and they were completely gone by a couple months after 2. But he could sleep 12-14 hours straight at night. We had really busy Thursdays back then including staying out a bit past his bedtime in the evening. He could go to bed at 8:30 and sleep until 11 the next day. We had that luxury since he didn't have to get up in the morning.

When on routine and up early for school, the younger ones kept a nap until a little after 3. Summer was the end of that because we would go-go-go and they could sleep in the next day. None of my kids have ever had the internal alarm clock that gets them out of bed at the same time each morning. Knock on something for me; I like my sleep.

I think some kids just need more sleep. But I also think the above about total hours is true. Most kids I know who napped late also went to bed much later than ours do. My girls dropped weekend naps around 3.5ish but they go to bed really early. As in, they're in bed by 7:30pm and they sleep straight until 7:30am the next morning. So that's 12 hours of sleep all in one go, which is about normal for their age. On school nights it's a struggle because they need to go to bed so early to get enough sleep to wake up in time the next morning (this is why I'm dreading next year's 7:50 Kindy start time!) In fact, they are still asleep as I type this which is OK now since I can get some work done before they wake...but next year they HAVE to be at school by 7:50am...10 minutes from now - yikes!!!

eta: our kids have a lot of trouble falling asleep at night if they get even a few minutes' catnap in the car - so we actually try hard to not let them fall asleep during the day because it keeps them up very late at night to where they can't make up for the lost sleep. (i.e. if DD2 falls asleep for 5 minutes in the car, she can't fall asleep until 8:30pm vs her usual 7:30pm on the weekends. So that 5 minute nap nowhere makes up for the hour of lost sleep, and sleeping in later in the morning tends to not work out well (because DD1 will wake her up earlier, or we wake up and make noise that wakes them up, or whatever). So in our house the key for enough sleep is for kids to be asleep EARLY, LOL!

It is now 7:50am - public Kindy start time. My kids are still asleep (they fell asleep about 7:45pm last night). Hahahaha.

[Cam&Clay]

DS2 napped until the first day of kindergarten. He was 5 1/2!

[wendibird22]

DD2 is 4 and still naps. She skips it maybe once every other week. DD1 is 6.5 yo and will sometimes nap on the weekend.

[lizzywednesday]

Mine's nearly 4 and she naps at daycare, but not at home ... though she desperately needs it some days!!

ETA: We haven't turned down parties due to nap conflicts. She's been fine at the party & has fallen asleep on the way home.

[KHF]

My DD napped until she went to kindergarten (a few days shy of her 5th birthday). DS is starting K in the fall, he turned 5 in December, and he still naps most days. We can let him skip sometimes, but he does better when he sleeps a couple of hours.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Selfishly, I enjoyed the downtime and I also liked that he got to hang out with DH and play after dinner. But it was challenging when people wanted to do parties, playdates etc. in the afternoon. He actually almost slept through his own 4th birthday party!

Ok, this is the thing that i LOVE about it. I now work full time outside the home with 30min commute and typically don't get home till after 6pm, sometimes 630. On days i workout i don't get home till 7:45 I would be sad if kids had to be in bed by 7:30 already..i'd feel like id get very little time with them. But the kids usually go to bed around 830-9 so i feel like i get lots of quality time with them, and we aren't rushing to do dinner, bedtime etc. And with DH working from home now, he takes them to school so DS gets to sleep in till 7:30.

I do think that some kids just need more sleep than others. DD (who goes to bed at the same time) wakes at 6:30am on weekdays (she wakes up when i wake up) and i typically get a full hour with her in the mornings (while DH and DS sleep), again leisurely since DH is the one that will pack up their stuff take them to school. It is also nice because on weekends i can take her to stuff and not have to worry about naps.

I also don't think it's just about the hours of sleep needed but how stimulated a kid gets..at least for my DS. my DS needs a lot of sleep but it's also he gets very overstimulated by certain things (sounds, lights etc). When awake he is 100% go-go-go, the 4yo asking a billion questions and trying to analyze this or that. He can't just "chill" and lay back like DD.

Kindergarten should be interesting, but for him it's not for another year and a half. It is 8:00 start time here.

[AnnieW625]

Dd2 still naps and will be 4 at the end of April. Her napping on the weekends can be a bit spotty though especially if DD1 is home; if DD1 is not home then there is much better luck she will nap. She usually naps about 90 minutes to 2 hrs. . She naps for about the same amount of time at daycare.

DD1 napped very well until she was over 4/1/2 and one of the preschool kids told her that 4 yr. olds don't nap. I let her get rid of the nap on her own on the weekends (she was still a great sleeper at daycare), but she still took it some of the time, and a bonus was she was back in bed by 7:30 a feat which hadn't happened since she was 18 mos. old or so. DD1 would either take a nap at daycare after school pick up or would be zonked out on the car ride home for most of kindergarten. Occaisionally she'll take a nap on the weekends or a few times in the past month has zonked out completely on the couch by 7:30 pm.

My girls have napped between 12 and 3 and 1 and 3 so birthday parties weren't a huge issue for us, but I get that it is for some. I always had our kids parties between 3 and 5 and DD2 in fact once she got in the habit of napping at 7-8 months old would nap between 10-12 or 11-1 until she finally moved her lone nap in the morning to the afternoon at just shy of maybe a year old.



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[okinawama]

Nope. Not here. But when I taught kindergarten I usually had 1-2 children who were still napping in the month leading up to school. So, he's not the only one (most definitely in the minority, but not the only one :) )

[arivecchi]

My just turned 5 year old still naps, but he can go without on weekends.

[123LuckyMom]

DS napped until recently. We didn't preserve the nap, though. If there was a party or appointment, he skipped the nap. He doesn't nap anymore, but he still needs it. In convinced his recent spate of the crankies is due primarily to his adapting to life without naps!

[twowhat?]

Kindergarten should be interesting, but for him it's not for another year and a half. It is 8:00 start time here.

Yeah, since my kids missed the cutoff I hear a lot from parents of their old classmates who went to Kindy - they all said it was easiest to just not worry about it and drop the nap cold turkey on the day Kindy starts and the kids will adjust. I think the biggest challenge will be simply getting enough sleep - like you say there are not enough hours in the evening for quality time if kids need to go to sleep early, but without a nap they'd HAVE to get to bed early just to get in enough hours of sleep. It's going to be VERY interesting... I really am not looking forward to it!

[drako]

We stopped the naps for dd1 at 4.5 who was napping probably 1.5-2hrs. But since she was napping it would take her forever to fall asleep at night. We would put her to bed at 8:00 and it wasn't uncommon for her to be laying in bed or playing with her stuffed toys in bed until 10:00 or 10:30. Her preschool teacher commented how she was tired at school too. So that was the reasoning for stopping it. Once we stopped it she falls asleep quickly and for a good 11-12 hrs.

[BabyBearsMom]

DD1 turns 4 in April. She still naps at school probably 3 out of 5 days for 1 to 2 hours. At home, she won't nap, but if we are in the car during nap time she will frequently conk out. I think I am in the minority, but I am totally ready for my kids to be 100% done with naps. I hate having to plan the day around making sure we are home for naptime (neither girl will nap if we aren't home other than in the car).

[onyx8]

DS is 4.5, he still naps at school most days but not usually on the weekends.

[maylips]

Not only does my 4.5 year old still nap (about 2 hours every afternoon) my soon-to-be SEVEN year old naps for at least 2 hours on the weekends. Seriously, that girl can sleep. She even goes to bed at 8 p.m. consistently. I don't know how she gets through the week at school.

[mommylamb]

DS1 napped daily until about a month or two after he turned 5. It was great.

DS2 is only 2, but he's a crappy napper. He naps at daycare, but at home he naps for at most 1.5 hours, and he has never ever napped in his crib. He has a chair in our kitchen that he naps in, which means the rest of us have to tip toe around during his nap time. It's awful. I'm looking forward to him giving it up all together.

[BabbyO]

My 4 yo does not nap 90% of the time...but since starting 4K he does nap occasionally. I wish he would nap many days...but when he does he stays up well past 10 pm and loses out on total hours of sleep in a 24 hr period.

I wouldn't feel bad if my kids still napped....if that is what they need, they should get it. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think that they are going to really care about missed birthday parties at 3 and 4.

FWIW - we had to pull Stachio's nap (at the babysitters) by 3.5 yo otherwise he was up super late at night. But he stopped napping at home somewhere around 2.5 yo.

[elbert]

DD napped until the Spring of 3/4 day kindergarten, when she was 6.5!!! She would have kept going with it, but her calendar just became too busy to fit it in. It gets tricky, but we did do awhile we napping when she was able and "skipping nap" as needed for relatively minor conflicts (ie, I didn't hesitate to schedule thing during nap time). It was a transition...

[pb&j]

I got one at each end of the spectrum.

DS napped 2-3 hours until he went to kindy at 5.5.

DD never really napped. Maybe some short pm naps from age 1-2, but nothing you could plan on.

[kdeunc]

Both of my boys napped until they started Kindergarten at 5 1/2. DD napped during the week (daycare) until kindy started. She had just turned 5. She did not generally nap on the weekends after about 4 1/2. All of my kids went to bed around 7-7:30 and slept until around 7. The boys are still extremely sleep sensitive at 11 and 9. Regardless of what time they go to bed they do not sleep later in the morning.

[daisymommy]

Al of my children' including my current 4.5 year old DS takes a 2 hour nap each day. He and I both need it! :)


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[YouAreTheFocus]

DS is nearly 4.5 and is a hard-core napper. This kid needs his sleep! He naps 1.5 hrs at daycare and 3 hrs at home on wkds/holidays. He also sleeps 11-12 hrs at night. We've occasionally pushed through nap for logistical reasons, like when traveling, but in general he's a mess if he skips nap. This wkd we were out of town, and we had to go back to the hotel for nap everyday--by noon/1 he was just falling apart. For this reason I'm glad he misses the cutoff and doesn't start K next fall.

[mackmama]

bc sometimes i think I have the only one! LOL. He naps 2 hrs at daycare and then on weekends naps a solid 2, sometimes 3 hours.

I guess i've been really noticing that this year DS has gotten lots of invitations from classmates to birthday parties. We have only gone to 2 out of the more than dozen of them, because they are typically something like 130-330, 2-4pm or 3-430 which is DS's naptime (sometimes he naps from 230-5..waking DS from a nap = not for the faint of heart, lol). I feel bad declining but my DS is a BEAR without his nap and the excitement/stimulation of a bday party would do us all in! The two we went to, one was 10-12 and the other was 11-1 and provided pizza lunch for the kids.

I just find it so funny as i'm already starting to get invitations for DD during that time frame (so i guess most 3yos dont' nap either?)..which I am so excited about bc DD (almost 3) has given up her weekend nap so she can actually go! LOL. I'm guessing DD is the more "normal" one?

We are noticing this same thing at 3yo. All bday parties are right in the middle of nap time, so I'm wondering if our DC is one of the only nappers.

[eagle]

i must say, i am soooo jealous of all the nappers here. ds dropped his naps at 3. i often make him do quiet time for an hour (or two) right after lunch. he NEVER sleeps, even though i wished he would.

[mackmama]

i must say, i am soooo jealous of all the nappers here. ds dropped his naps at 3. i often make him do quiet time for an hour (or two) right after lunch. he NEVER sleeps, even though i wished he would.

Just curious for when I'm there... does the quiet time occur in his bed or just in his room or anywhere like while watching TV?

[eagle]

for us, its stay in his room, free to do read, draw, play w legos, toys; sometimes he can have his ipad.