What's you nap time policy?

[DaycareMiss]

Hello all, I look forward to your suggestions.

Here's the dilemma: a parent has requested that her just turned 3 yr old child be exempt from nap time due to issues at bedtime. I have 3 children full time and one part time. All kids go down at approximately 12:30pm till they wake up (anyone still sleeping gets woke up at 2:45 unless they are under 2 I will not wake them.)
I have tried not putting the child up for nap, each child has own room to rest with a playpen. I'm finding that the without the nap, the afternoon is difficult as I don't get a break & her behaviour deteriorates to the point of crying for no reason/not listening & being rough with the other. She is generally a well behaved child when she gets a rest. How to I break it gently to the parents that I will no longer keep her awake at nap time, that she must go to rest for at least 1 hour before I will go get her. Why do parents think that we should work 10 hours a day without a break only to deal with a tired cranky child for the entire afternoon. I also have a new 11 month old that has started & I have a hard time getting her to sleep especially if another child is running around. I've tried this for the past 4 days and it's not working, I don't want to loose the child but I have to think of everyone including myself.

[treeholm]

My parents know that if their child outgrows a nap, they have outgrown my daycare. All children are in bed, in separate rooms, for two hours. If they are tired, they will sleep. If they don't sleep, they can sing to themselves etc., but I won't keep a child awake. They all sleep...

[Daisy123]

All children under 4 nap at my house. We DO deserve a break! I know personally that without my own down time I get a little cranky too. If the children fall asleep then they needed the nap. If they don't fall asleep then fine- but they stay on their mats for an hour before moving on to quiet reading. I had school age kids here for a PA day last week. I put the 4 year olds down to see what would happen and they ALL fell asleep.

[Fun&care]

I've had issues with my daughter no longer needing a nap otherwise taking forever to fall asleep at night so I sympathize with the parents. What I do with my dd is she still has to go to bed for the first hour of naptime and after that she can stay up and watch TV for the remainder. If she falls asleep, I STILL wake her after an hour otherwise it will mess with her routine again. I haven't done this with any other dck yet but I would offer it to parents whose child can't settle at night with the conditions that the child must remain quiet and that I will ONLY let them watch TV and nothing else, so special activities etc. because after all it IS my break time. If you find that she is cranky it could be because she hasn't settled into the new routine yet but at 3 my belief is that many, not all, but many can ditch the nap.

[apples and bananas]

Everyone naps here. I will allow a child to stop napping the summer before they are in school. And when they do that the parents understand that it's very likely they will be placed in front of the tv or possibly with my older children and the computer working on educational games. I need my alone time.

[DaycareMiss]

This is the first time I've ever been asked to cut out the nap time in 5 years. Maybe I just need to develop a spine & tell them that, take it or leave it. Sigh, this stresses me out. I don't like confrontation, it's outside my comfort zone

[AmandaKDT]

My policy is that everyone must have quiet time and lay down. If they are not asleep after 30 minutes I might let an older child get up and then they can watch cartoons until quiet time is over. I have two almost 4 year olds, when they started with me in the spring both parents asked for no nap or a very short nap but at the same time agreed to my quiet time policy. Both of them still fall asleep within 10 minutes everyday and any issues with getting them to sleep at night were resolved long ago. I leave them for atleast an hour and any issues sleeping at home were resolved by their parents and as far as I know they are no longer an issue. There is no way that I would keep kids awake when they really should be having a nap.

So my answer is, they all go for quiet time and if they fall asleep then they obviously need it. I am not going to deny them something they need and deal with grumpy kids just so they will go to bed early when they get home.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I had a parent ask that her 3.5 year old no longer nap because it was disrupting her bedtime. I said sure that's fine. She comes upstairs with me and watches tv, does puzzles, reads books, works on worksheets with me and sometimes falls asleep. I just let her mom know if she had a nap and she pushes bedtime back about 30 minutes.

However, I am sending out a revised contract for the new year and in it, I have asked that all children lay down for 30 minutes so that I have a break and can eat lunch in peace. I wrote that in there because I feel that some parents truly don't get that we don't get a break lol. If she is still awake after that, she can get up and come upstairs with me like we do now.

It is our home and we can make the rules but I am also aware that they are not mine and if their parents request something I will do my best to work with them to find a solution that works for both of us. A 30 minute break plus an 1.5 hours of quiet time with one child is fine by me and it will hopefully be okay with her parents as well.

[Crayola kiddies]

I had a parent tell me their child wouldn't go to sleep at night and that they wanted him to nap from 12 to 1:30 only .... so I tried that one day and it was a nightmare ...the kid was exhausted and didn't like being woken up so he screamed for the rest of the after noon and so from then on I put him down at 11:30 and woke him at 2:30 cause he got picked up at 3. and after the first week I asked the parent how the new nap schedule was working and they said it was perfect.....they were never the wiser.....its all in their head. tell your parent you will wake the child after 60 mins and they may look at books quietly but they must stay in the desiginated area until quiet time is over ....but yes the only time I don't insist on a nap is the summer before a child heads off to school and even then its only for the last three weeks of summer. you will need to be firm

[Sassygirl]

While as the soon to be mom of 5 kiddos I completely understand the parent not wanting sleep issues at night... at the same time I am the firm believer that sleep begets sleep. Meaning, for me personally IME with my own kiddos, on the days they had missed their nap or it was a shorter one that night their sleep was terrible!
I wonder what time this child is being put to bed at night and woken in the morning?
I need that break in the afternoon to clean and sanitize, to eat my lunch and organize my emails/bills/receipts etc., and to just recharge. Its only 1 of us working 10 hour + days we need the break.
I tell ALL my parents that 2 hours in the afternoon is MANDATORY here. They can babble away or sing to themselves etc in their playpens but thats what white noise machines are for LOL.
All my kiddos are toddlers though so its a little different. I wear them out so for most part I get 2-3 hours every afternoon.
Older kiddos up to age 4? I would still keep naptime earlier. We eat lunch at 11 then its nap 12-3. If they are up after 2 I let them get up but for the most part I am waking them all at 3.
I would say mandatory lay down for 1 hour and after 1 hour whether asleep or not let them up for a movie, quiet time and let parents know that they will be on their own while I am on break.
If parents have a problem with this my daycare is not for them.