LMAO ~ I am in my 40's and I still NEED a nap

I think if parents realized that 98% of the 'behavior' that drives them nuts day in and day out can be contributed to lack of SLEEP they might be more invested in protecting the nap!

I will share a story ... I had a lady call me when I first opened up looking for 'immediate' care for her 3 year old child .... she openly admitted that she was at her wits end finding a childcare program that would work because the little girl was unruly and had the most horrific angry tantrums and was spitting / hitting at both the current provider and at the parents in the evening and this was like her SIXTH childcare she was currently in ... and well the current provider was not 'coping' with her and had to keep calling to send the kid home .... during the course of the conversation the FIRST place I went was 'talk to me about her sleeping patterns' .... kid had outgrown her nap at 20 months and none of the previous providers 'required' quiet time for ALL the kids so she would refuse to lay down cause the other older were up and than they were lucky if they could get her into bed by 10:30 pm and she was up at 6:30am cause mom worked at 7:30... 8 hours sleep from 20 months forward .... all brain and development research shows that children this age still need 12-14 hours sleep :roll:

So anyway ... I agreed to meet with them under the understand that A) at my house she would be RESTING it is not an option and if she SLEEPS than it is because she needs it and B) that they agreed to keep all discipline the same between home for any inappropriate behavior!

I had that child for THREE YEARS and not once did she ever behave aggressively in my program ~ from day one until she graduated to grade one full time she NAPPED here everyday for 2-3 hours and within the end of the first week of starting she was going to bed at home by 8pm without challenge for mom or dad because we bumped her 'routine' back 30 minutes each night until she was starting to wean down by 7pm with a snack, a bath, reading and lights out for 7:45 ... now they had some 'learned behavior' challenges at home still in the way of she continued to do that whining/crying to get her way if she got a 'no' to something however the full out 'aggressive tantrums' of the spitting and hitting stopped at home that first week .... and the only thing we changed was more sleep begets more sleep for her ... she was getting 2-3 hour nap plus 10 hours sleep at night for a total of 12-13 hours sleep .... we never really had to deal with the 'consistent' discipline between home and program because once she was 'rested' she was way more resilient to not getting instant gratification

Poor thing though ~ school full time has not been easy on her because she still NEEDS 12 plus hours sleep and with extra curricular activities she cannot allows be in bed by 6 pm in order to get it and she cannot 'nap' at school to get in extra time there!