Tired kids on Monday

[torontokids]

What do you normally do when you have one that clearly needs a nap but you only have one nap time? I had one DCG arrive pretty crabby and mom tell me that she was up at 5:45 am. This same family struggles to get their kids asleep at night and has been very excited that they are now going to be at 8:40pm (too late in my opinion but progress!).

My daycare is one open space in the basement so separating her and napping her would be hard and also impact our ability to go outside. So I just toughed it our today and let her cry/whine outside and we came in a bit earlier (which I did not want to do as all the other kids were playing so nice, having a ball and its supposed to rain this afternoon). When we got inside she was pretty hysterical so I cuddled with her for a bit and read her a couple stories which helped her to settle down and manage until nap time. I may have gone for a walk in the stroller so she could catch a brief nap but my eldest was home sick on the couch inside so we couldn't leave the premises.

What do you do in these instances? I currently have an undisturbed 2.5 hr nap time that I don't want to mess with!

[mickyc]

I just carry on with my day and stick to our routine.

I always find Monday's are usually the roughest day as the kids are out of routine from the weekend, and then Friday's are rough because they are sick of each other and ready for a break.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I have never found a morning nap messed up my afternoon break. If a child comes in cranky and the parent tells me they were up early, I will sometimes put them down for a quick 30 min nap ASAP. There is no point in making everyone suffer IMO. A quick morning power nap doesn't interfere with our outside time as the power nap is usually over by 9, 930 at the latest. I used to have one child who napped until 10 and still had his 2 hour nap at 1230.

[torontokids]

Yeah, I guess because I have only one open space I have never been able to successfully nap a child outside of regular nap time.

It would only interfere with afternoon nap if I let them nap for as long as they wanted but I agree waking them up after a quick rest could work. Just no where to put them.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I would likely invest in a playpen to have in a different room, even upstairs.

Tired cranky kids make a for a long day and that just doesn't interest me! LOL

[Rachael]

If someone arrives tired and cranky, I have no issue in putting them down for a power nap until everyone is here and we are ready to start the scheduled day. I've done this before with new starters too who just aren't used to getting up and out the door when Mom is on mat leave.

[Secondtimearound]

I have a napping room and have no issue putting down a cranky child. At the regular nap time I will lay her down again and she will play quietly or sleep again. dcm loves when I can get two naps in but I like to wait if I can until everyone goes down at the same time.

[bright sparks]

I would likely invest in a playpen to have in a different room, even upstairs.

Tired cranky kids make a for a long day and that just doesn't interest me! LOL

This is exactly what I would do too. I can't really find an issue with letting a child power nap if they need it. Keeping them awake when they are clearly upset and having a hard time is a bit harsh IMO I understand not wanting daycare to take over the whole house, but setting a playpen up in a bedroom on a rare occasion in cases like this seems like the right thing to do and in the best interest of the child.

[torontokids]

Just out of curiosity, how do other people do it then? How do I bring one child upstairs while I have 5 kids downstairs in the daycare? Or even worse, during drop off time in the a.m which is when this would probably happen. The daycare parents arrive at a separate entrance in my daycare. I never leave the daycare space for this reason (never thought this was a viable option without leaving kids unattended).

I have a small kids table they sit at (only use one highchair for the littlest) and I don't keep the play pens set up. I'm not trying to be difficult, I just haven't figured out logistically how this could work.

At the top of my daycare stairs is my kitchen. I have tried putting a kid down there before in a PNP but this wasn't very successful as it is bright, a different environment and probably not conducive to sleep.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I have a separate room for napping but if I didn't, I would set up a playpen in my computer room, living room or even my own bedroom and use it for the odd times that a child is tired/cranky in the mornings. I would wait until all the children were here (unless there is a big gap between drop off's). I would just quickly run the child upstairs and put in the playpen. I am not a helicopter dcprovider and for the 2 minutes or less it would take me, the other children would be fine. (It's really no different than going to the washroom)

I have blankets on the sides of a couple playpens (so they can't see their friends and for the most part, they know not to touch those blankets) and that would maybe work to make it a bit darker. If you can put a playpen/crib sheet over top off the playpen, it would keep the blankets in place and make it dark. But keep one or two sides blanket free for breathing! If the child is cranky and tired, they will likely fall asleep anyways. I also have a white noise machine and I would put that on so they couldn't hear the other kids playing as much.