When do you give up on the nap?

[ExcitedMama]

DS will be 5 next month and now often skips his afternoon nap. He's an early riser so no matter what time he goes to bed he usually is up by 6 and it's pretty hard to get him into bed before 7. I worry about him having such a long day. What age do you give up on the nap?

 

I've seen a lot of people mention transitioning to quiet time instead of nap time. How do you set the rules for this? I know if I tell him he can play quietly, his 2 yo sister sleeps next door during nap time, he would never try to nap so do I wait until he never naps to do this?

 

How do you handle days with nighttime events? Especially this time of year with holiday events at night which keeps them up later than usual. Would I try or get him to nap on those days?

[ScoutTN]

We did transition from nap to room time seamlessly. I would lie down with Ds to get him to fall asleep on days I wanted him to nap. Even at age 7, I like him to have a nap once a week, especially during busy holiday times and in the winter.

Some people are just not nappers, though. My Dh.

[AK_Mom4]

We transitioned pretty cleanly from nap time to "lie in your bed and look at books with soft music playing" time.  DD would pick at stack of books and lie on her bed.  Sometimes she fell asleep, sometimes she got thru all of her books and then got up.  This was about age 4 that she was starting to nap less.

 

With a 5yo, I would explain that he needs to be quiet to not wake up sister because she still needs a nap.  Then, give him a couple of quiet options - looking at picture books, a quiet toy to play with in bed, music or an audiobook.  Some days he may still sleep, other days it just gives everyone some downtime (Much Needed!)

 

BTW - DD13 is starting to transition back into naps, lol!  It's not unusual for her to be snoozing after lunch over her history book.

[FriedClams]

I'm mid 40s and I haven't given up yet!! :-)

[73349]

We switched from nap (which was a daily battle) to quiet time when DS turned 4, and frankly just skipped a lot of evening events for a year or so because he needed to go to bed. By that point, if he did nap, he'd be wired until 10 PM, but if he didn't, he needed to be in bed at 7. (I had been forcing naptime really since he was one and a half just to get through dinner without meltdowns; he's not a kid who would ever just fall asleep.)

 

To introduce quiet time, I made it sound like a privilege for him.

Guess what? Now that you're four, you don't have to take naps any more! Instead, you will play quietly in your room until your clock turns yellow [30 minutes at first]. I will get out different toys for you to play with every few days. If you stay in your room except for bathroom breaks and stay quiet, you get a sticker! When you get three stickers, you get to pick a treasure from the treasure box!

 

Then I was able to stretch the rewards to a week and eventually drop them, and also expand the time (maybe 5 or 10 minutes a month) until he was in there for 90 minutes. He only ever fell asleep during quiet time a handful of times.

[Annie]

Oh gosh, I can't even imagine the joy of having an almost five year old that took a nap.

 

My oldest gave up his at 18 months when it was taking me over an hour to get him to sleep for nap and at least another hour at bedtime. He did go to sleep quite early for a year and a half or so after giving up the nap. Honestly, we just kind of adjusted our lives around it. He won't even nap when he's sick.

 

I thought about trying a quiet time, but it virtually impossible. He wasn't verbal, and it just didn't work. At the age of your son, I would definitely do it! Maybe audio books?

 

I'm guessing my younger will nap a little longer, but I'd be pretty surprised if he were still napping at 2.

[fairfarmhand]

Mine quit napping, all of them, by age 3 or 4. We transitioned to early bedtime rather than naps. In fact, I hated it when they'd nap because they'd be up till 11 if they fell asleep at those ages.

 

After several days of no nap, I bet he will be ready for bed by 7:30.

[SKL]

One of mine was ready to be done with naps by age 4 or 5.  The other would have liked to continue them, but 1st grade doesn't have nap time.  :P  She does fine without it, but would enjoy a little more sleep.  (I can't blame her!)

 

I think my kids were on the old side of the spectrum as far as still taking naps.  I have been very lucky with them in the sleep department.

[Amy in NH]

I'm thinking about going to take one right now, and I'm 43~!

[Arcadia]

My kids gave up nap time very early, my older was by one year old. The rule was for them to play quietly while I nap near them. Sometimes they read, most times they play Legos or build train tracks.

[GailV]

I'm mid 40s and I haven't given up yet!! :-)

 

Yeah, I just got up from 15 minutes of unconsciousness ....

[SparklyUnicorn]

My kids were terrible nappers...always.  They left me no choice.  LOL

 

 

[Luckymama]

All three of my kids gave up naps by 20 months :eek:

 

We had many years of 7pm bedtimes :D

[Tsuga]

My kindergartener could easily have a nap. But her older sister would. not. sleep. even at three. I mean it was a NIGHTMARE. Finally we just did quiet time. I am a big believer in naps but at some point I just had to have her be quiet and realize she was not going to sleep. She sleeps when she's tired.

[EKS]

My older son took naps--good long ones!--until he was 5yo (and it's a good thing too, as he was *very* labor intensive when he was little).  The younger son...not so much.  I think he stopped when he was 3yo and I'm pretty sure he's never taken a nap again.

[Wilma]

I quit on naps with my people when a daytime sleep made it difficult for them to fall asleep at bedtime.  That was a drag.

 

[FaithManor]

I think it was around four. But I have to tell you, though the boys are almost 18, 16, and 14, I sure wish some days that they still took naps, LOL!

[JustEm]

My older too both stopped napping at 2. My youngest is almost 2 and does not nap at least twice a week so I suspect he will be done with them altogether soon. Because of this they are all in bed by 7:30 and almost always fall asleep the second their heads hit the pillow.  They wake up at 7 no matter how late they stay up so I'm not changing the 7:30 bedtime anytime soon

[Momof3]

It's harder when you have multiple kids to a bedroom (ask me how I know). :)

 

When we started school this year, I started letting ds6 stay up from his naps. He wasn't sleeping most days, anyway...and then he'd just wake the babies up too early... Then we were having emotionally-off days towards the end of the week... So now he takes naps on Tuesdays & Saturdays - and that is working *so* nicely. 

 

I don't know how you people do it with kids that don't nap from 2yo on... I tuck them all in, and read to them (dd4 gets to join us in the boys' room), and then ds6 reads or draws quietly on the top bunk until the others fall asleep. I sit & read or type or plan, etc. until they're conked. Then ds6 & I sneak off downstairs...and it's blissful quiet for about 2 hours. :)

[Mergath]

My dd quit napping around eighteen months.  :cursing:  :banghead:   I knew we were done when she was sleeping twelve hours at night and not tired or cranky during the day.  If we have anything going on at night and dd needs to stay up late, she sleeps in the next morning.

[bolt.]

I transitioned to quiet times. I set the rules as above, and as above, made it a privilidge. In my case I used slight manipulation to make it a conditional privilidge: "If you can't/won't do a proper QT, you will need to have a nap instead."

 

On days where a nap is critical, I enforce head-on-pillow and the use of spa-style eye covers, with a quiet audio book. Usually that knocks them out if there is any hope of sleep. Present tense. It's still my go-to tactic with my kids now 10yo and 7yo. (For sick days and crazy late weekend events.)

[Rachel]

My older two quit napping around three, my youngest probably won't quite make three. While transitioning to rest time I told the kids they had to lie on their bed to rest until the timer went off, then they could look at books. That was enough time that if they were going to sleep, they would fall asleep.

 

Now all the kids rest for two hours. They just have to be quiet but usually they read/look at books and then play in their room. The transistion was pretty easy. On nice days I do give the option of playing outside too.

[Lolly]

Well, they took my nap away when I got to first grade. I went back to napping in the afternoon when I got to college. My kids? DD22: 2 yrs. Probably the day the twins came home from the hospital... Dd20b: 2.5...Dd20a: 5ish...Ds18....not sure he ever really napped. catnapped, yes, generally about 15 minutes at a time. At night, I was lucky to get 2 straight hours out of him. He is still that way. He learned to not wake Mama when he was 3. He still doesn't sleep for long stretches. Wait, he does in the afternoon now...which is just lovely(not).

[KrissiK]

Ugh, this is a sore subject here. My 4 year old really needs naps. She is a wreck by the end of the day without one. However, if she does get one, even an hour or so, she's up till all hours of the night. She will always fall asleep in the car when we go places in the afternoon, and she transfers very well when we get home, so, some days she does get naps. But generally, I just let her not nap (she hates it anyway, so it would be a battle), and then by bedtime she's falling asleep very quickly.

[Pawz4me]

Both of our boys stopped napping when they were around 18 months old.  They simply weren't sleepy or tired.  It took a LOT more energy to try to get them to nap than I would have gained from being able to nap (or have some quiet time) myself.  They had no problem going all day w/o being cranky.  After about 18 months, other than a few times when they fell asleep in the car, I'm pretty sure neither of them took another nap until they hit their mid teens.

[Maplecat]

My husband does not need a lot of sleep and it seems to be a trait he passed on to our kids. Naps stopped here for good right around two. The little one will still fall asleep in the car and no matter how long she sleeps, it throws off bedtime by hours.

 

I always thought "quiet time" was a good concept, but figured I was just too lazy to implement it. After talking to my mom and more parents, I realized that one essential difference between my family and theirs was the age when their kids stopped napping. I could teach a four year old to do quiet time. I'm not comfortable with leaving a 20 month old alone to do quiet time.

[Dory]

I'm jealous of all these folks who have managed to keep nap time so long. Dd napped until she was 2 1/2 but both boys quiet by the time they were 18mon. We try to do quiet time where they are allowed to read in their rooms or quietly build things with their k'nex or lego. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work. My youngest especially is rather impulsive and comes up with wild ideas during quiet time and heads into them without remembering that it's not allowed. He's getting better with time, but by now, it really isn't worth it to me to push quiet time that much. Quiet time happens less and less often around here. I suspect that I have maybe one to two more years of it and then it will be completely gone.

 

My oldest already begs to be allowed to skip it.

[mom2samlibby]

My DD gave up her name around 18 months.  It was so much easier to get her to go to bed at night without that nap.  I missed the nap, but bedtime was a lot better!

[Tammi K]

When my kids pester me often enough that I can't get any sleep!    Oh wait, did you mean for the kids. :tongue_smilie:  

[mom2scouts]

All of mine gave up naps by age 2.  I can't even imagine getting a 5 year old to take a nap! When dd was that age, a nap *always* meant she was sick.

[Reefgazer]

I'm 52 and I haven't given up a nap yet, so I dunno....  :)

[SKL]

I could actually use a nap right now.  Unfortunately it wouldn't fly with my boss ....

[Farrar]

Giving up the nap around age 2.5 was the best thing we did. The nap was traumatic here. They were always exhausted and never slept. Dh used to have to physically hold them down when they were tiny. Anyway, moving on from the idea of nap helped them finally learn to sleep occasionally. We should have given it up before they turned 2 yo and maybe saved ourselves a lot of grief. It was just so prevalent as a concept that children must nap.