This parent is driving me crazy! Am I wrong here??

[bright sparks]

I have quiet time from 12-3. Not a naptime. I will never make it mandatory for a child to nap, because every child's needs are different and while one kid may not get enough rest with 1 or 2 hours, another child can quite happily manage at 12 months old with this amount of time, regardless of what I think. I have quiet time where everyone is expected to go for a lie down or a sleep. Should the child naturally not fall asleep, then that is their own body controlling their needs but they are still resting and should it be very difficult for them to stay settled, then they could have a book to read or other comfort item as long as they were quiet. I do have the luxury of napping the kids all separately though, so I sleep train my kids from the get go so should one wake noisily very early from nap, they can make a fuss and then self sooth themselves back to sleep and learn that screaming, shouting or misbehaving is not tolerated. If a child sleeps three hours, then it is obviously because their body needs it, and if they didn't need to get that amount of sleep, then they simply wouldn't. As for night time sleep routine, an overtired child can be more hassle at times than one who had a long daytime nap to settle at bedtime and I have heard all to frequently the parents who make these demands and complaints, tell me their kids are up to all kinds of things prior to bedtime so I think many times there are far more causes to poor night time sleeping routines that what goes on at daycare. Sleep training requires work on the caregivers part, parents need to parent....and often this is not happening so the child doesn't sleep because they don't have to.

[babydom]

I have quiet time from 12-3. Not a naptime. I will never make it mandatory for a child to nap, because every child's needs are different and while one kid may not get enough rest with 1 or 2 hours, another child can quite happily manage at 12 months old with this amount of time, regardless of what I think. I have quiet time where everyone is expected to go for a lie down or a sleep. Should the child naturally not fall asleep, then that is their own body controlling their needs but they are still resting and should it be very difficult for them to stay settled, then they could have a book to read or other comfort item as long as they were quiet. I do have the luxury of napping the kids all separately though, so I sleep train my kids from the get go so should one wake noisily very early from nap, they can make a fuss and then self sooth themselves back to sleep and learn that screaming, shouting or misbehaving is not tolerated. If a child sleeps three hours, then it is obviously because their body needs it, and if they didn't need to get that amount of sleep, then they simply wouldn't. As for night time sleep routine, an overtired child can be more hassle at times than one who had a long daytime nap to settle at bedtime and I have heard all to frequently the parents who make these demands and complaints, tell me their kids are up to all kinds of things prior to bedtime so I think many times there are far more causes to poor night time sleeping routines that what goes on at daycare. Sleep training requires work on the caregivers part, parents need to parent....and often this is not happening so the child doesn't sleep because they don't have to.

Are all kids required to stay on their bed for the full three hrs regardless if they sleep or not?

[bright sparks]

Are all kids required to stay on their bed for the full three hrs regardless if they sleep or not?

Not necessarily. If they are quiet then its not a question of requirement as they just lie quietly anyway. Sleep is not required, so if a child is restless and uncomfortable and has been lying quietly for a couple of hours and hasn't slept, then depending on the child, and in general the whole dynamic of my group, I might allow them to get up and play with playdoh quietly, do some colouring or watch a tv show. If all my kids were awake and I could hear them talking, moving around etc, and it had been a good couple of hours then for the most part we would just get on with our day. While I value my break, sometimes we can't get as much done as we would like because of long nappers, so sometimes having everyone awake at 2/2:30 means we can have more fun times in the afternoon before pickup.