I wrote “The Needed Nap” almost exactly a year ago (a year ago yesterday, actually) defending my choice to have my then 4 1/2 year old take a daily nap. Well, folks, not much has changed. My now 5 1/2 year old STILL takes a daily nap. And while it doesn’t come up much in conversation anymore (in fact, I avoid bringing it up knowing the response I’m likely to get: She’s too old to need a nap) but when it does come up, it’s usually with other parents of kindergartners and their response is surprising. Usually the say: I wish my kid still napped!
I’ve also realized recently that while Honeybun may be the ONLY kid in her entire school that takes a nap still, I’m not just a mean, horrible mother than subjects my kid to a nap she doesn’t need. Most of her friends go to bed at night an hour or more before Honeybun does and/or wake up before her in the morning. So really, she’s not getting any more sleep in a 24 hour period than her classmates are, we’re just breaking it up differently.
Sure, instead of having a daily nap, I could put my girls to bed at 7 instead of 8 like many of their friends, but there are three very important reasons why I choose to nap instead:
1) My children are raging lunatics by dinner time if they don’t at least rest. How do I know this? We’ve been skipping our nap on most Fridays in order to meet friends at the park and play with people we don’t get to see during the wee and every time we do, they are HORRIBLE by the time we leave and are absolute wrecks until bedtime (which usually comes around 7 or 7:30 if possible!)
2) I need an afternoon break. I need time to rest, get things done and relish in what tiny bit of sanity I have left before taking on the evening of dinner making and 3 out of 5 nights, work. Basically: I NEED nap time too!
3) It is extremely important to me, when possible, for our family to eat altogether. There is already 2 nights a week I am working over dinner and a few times a month that hubby has work obligations at dinner time so every dinner counts and if the girls were in bed by 7, they would hardly even see hubby, let alone get a meal in with him! We need that family time together, all 5 of us and barely make it to our 8 o’clock bedtime as it is!
