Forcing my child to sleep?

[Judy Trickett]

I guess, but if not resting its movie/book time with the lights out for most in my area...daycare center's here have staff in the room to make sure they sleep...

This is going to sound argumentative but it's not intended to.

If most daycares in your area (and it's not just in YOUR area I know a lot of providers!) require that children rest for a period of time why do you think that is? I mean, these are the people in the business of caring for kids. They know kids. They spend 50 hours a week with kids.

The answer to my own question (bolded) is that providers require a rest period because kids NEED that rest time. Most kids are chronically over tired. Most behavioural problems are due to over- tiredness. We wouldn't feed our kids junk food so why do we think it's okay to give them junk sleep?

A child that is 2.5 years old needs between 12 and 14 hours of sleep per day to allow for optimal health, growth and development. If he is going to bed at 11pm and, presumably getting up at least by 7am (because he needs to get up to be at daycare) then that leaves a 4 hour gap of time he was robbed of sleep. He NEEDS the nap.

My guess is that your child is actually OVER-tired when you put him to bed and that is the reason he won't go down. When a parent tells me their child won't go to bed at night due to a nap I know that one of two things (or both) are happening. Either the child is over-tired because the parents put the child to bed too late, or, the parent is not parenting at bed time. It is important that the child understand that bedtime is bedtime and Tom-foolery will NOT be tolerated no matter how much fussing, crying or getting back out of bed occurs.

Your son's night time sleep problems are NOT the result of having had a nap.