Forcing my child to sleep?

[sunnydays]

I think you will find that most daycares require at minimum a quiet time. It is actually recommended and backed by research that young children need a rest period in the afternoon. And in kindgarten they actually still have a naptime (it is 30-40 minutes)...so I do not take nap away for children starting school soon. If they are sleeping it is because they are tired and need the sleep...nobody can actually force a child who is not tired to sleep...you can force them to stay quiet, but not sleep. My 5 year old often naps still when he is home and he sleeps well at night. He goes to bed a bit later in the summer because we are out enjoying physical activities such as biking and playing at the park etc...so he then has a nice rest in the afternoon. He still goes to bed by 9 at the latest. When he goes to school and has only 30 minutes of rest and doesn't actually sleep...he is so tired he is a wreck when he gets home and he has to go to bed by 7pm. I like our family time in the evening, so I prefer he naps and goes to bed a bit later. 11pm is too late for sure...but be sure it isn't because your son is going through a phase of sleep resistance. I had a daycare boy who did this recently (actually most kids do it at various stages)...finally his parents took my advice and let him cry it out in his room for a few nights until he got back to going to sleep. He always naps 2 to 2.5 hours for me...nothing changed in his naps, but he is back to sleeping at a decent hour at night. Sometimes it isn't lack of tiredness, but testing of boundaries (my kids have all done this to me as well and if I stay strong and firm, it passes).