Quote Originally Posted by MsBell View Post
I simply do the math, if a two year old is here for 10 hours a day, add the hour (min) to get here and home, 11 hours, throw in dinner for an hour, 12hours, that means they only have another 12 hours at home....so there is no way they are getting enough sleep at home unless all they do is eat dinner and get ready to come here in the morning. I have had many parents ask for early doscontinue of naps too, but I also know that a lot of those parents like to get their kids to bed by 730-8 at night. I also believe that an over tired sleep deprived child has a much harder time going to bed at night than one that gets a good healthy much needed 10-12 hours a day/night. So I firmly believe that a child that has trouble going to bed at night is because the bedtime routine is not working, not because they had an hour or two nap after lunch. I am firm on mandatory naps/quiet time too
I guess we have to agree to disagree. A child who is wide awake, happy and ready to party for two hours at night because he had a two hour nap in the afternoon is not doing so because the bedtime routine is not working. He's just not tired! Now I'm not talking about an infant or a 1-2 year old. I'm talking about 3-4 year olds (and in some case a child who is 2.5 year old). Again, I use my own son as an example. When he naps, he will not go to sleep until at 10:00 at night and then be miserable in the morning because he's not ready to wake up. Thankfully having my own daycare means that he can sleep in a little longer in the morning. Most parents don't have that luxury. But if my son doesn't have a nap, he's great all day. He's not overtired or grumpy. And when bedtime comes at 8:00 (which I think is a realistic time for kids his age to go to bed), he falls asleep easily. So why wouldn't I want to stick to that schedule?

Sorry, I don't mean to vent. And I do agree that kids still need some down time during the day as well (along with daycare providers). I just think it's really important that we listen to the parents we work with and not just assume that every child is the same when it comes to sleep.