Parent having issues with nap time

I have a parents of one my daycare children requesting that I put her child to nap early as she is having trouble getting him to sleep at night and waking him up in the morning.

I have 4 children in my care in total including her son, my nap time is around 12:30. She wants me to put the child to sleep at around 11am.

She has requested this to me a few times in past, I have explained that her son does not act or look tired prior to nap time also I have other children in my care and its very hard to be putting one for a nap while the others are still awake.

I have suggested waking him early (he sleeps around 2 and a half hours at nap time) as I let children sleep until they wake up on their own, her and her husband have said to let him sleep as much as he wants.

I am annoyed and am not sure how o answer to her request politely anymore. She sent me a text this morning and I have not replied yet.

Any advice?

Sooooo many parents do this...the reality is they are not able to get their child to sleep and they look to lay blame elsewhere.

All you can do is make it clear your nap time is not negotiable if it is no longer working for them they will need to seek care elsewhere. If they so choose to look elsewhere they will quickly find very, very few home daycares will put a child down for nap at 11am.

But frankly, I would just ignore it as they likely just keep asking when they are frustrated on things at their home. A simple "11am nap is not an option that is when we eat lunch as a group" should be enough of a response. Perhaps a comment along the lines of "this has been my nap time for X number of years and it is what has worked best for all the other families" then maybe they won't complain as much as doing so points out that the issue is on their end.

12:30 is a decent nap time...many others wait until 1 or even later!

When I get request for schedule change, I remind parent this group care environment and I not able to change routine to match parent preference. All children are one part of whole group and meals, naps, activities, all happen at same time for all. The need of majority set the schedule and children need come into line with daycare routine, not other way round.

I have suggested waking him early (he sleeps around 2 and a half hours at nap time) as I let children sleep until they wake up on their own, her and her husband have said to let him sleep as much as he wants.


That was nice of you to suggest that - maybe say it to Mom as the Parents sound like they don't talk to each other, which makes your job harder