Missed Nap times?? Why it shouldn’t bother you..

My kid doesn’t sleep in the afternoons.

She resists sleep so much, that I get tired convincing her to sleep.

Is my kid doing okay if she is not sleeping?

There are so many questions we have been hearing and as a mother I would say l am one of them to ask these same questions to my mama friends.

Missed nap times are something that make us stressed, and think it is not for the good of our child.

But actually when should we be worried about our kid not taking a nap?

We all know how important is a nap for a toddler, it makes them feel fresh, gives them more energy both physically and mentally to play, even helps them stay healthy as they won’t get over tired.

But does this mean we should force them to sleep even when they are resisting sleep so much that you end up loosing all your patience making them sleep? As a mother I don’t think so..

My daughter is 2 years old.. she has not been taking a nap 6 out of 7 days a week from around 3-4 months.. She gets up at around 8 in the morning, sleeps at 8 in the night, might get up once at night, is very active and enthusiastic all through the day, sleeps very well in the night and gets up with a smile on her face in the morning.

So why forcing her to sleep when she is not ready, I try for around 5-10 minutes in the afternoon… if she is not willing we stop and start playing again. No frustration, no anger, no tantrums.

The next thing is mama definitely needs some time for herself during the day to relax, as we can’t match with their energy levels. Here I am listing certain things we can do to just relax a bit during the day with a toddler who just won’t take a nap.

1. 1. Give your toddler some activities to play on her own that might take some time say 15-20 minutes. e.g. puzzles. During that time you can just lie down besides your kid and relax for a while
2. 2. Involve your toddler with your work (household), this will help you finish all the work before she sleeps in the night, and after she sleeps you have all the time for yourself.
3. 3. Make her sit with some activity again for another few minutes, and tell her to complete it till you take a shower… You will have to take a quick one, but you will feel relaxed. You can keep talking to her from the washroom and tell her you are almost done ( as they don’t have much patience to wait for you to come out)
4. 4. You both can just recline and sit and read some story books, this will help developing a habit as well as make you sit down for a few minutes and take some rest.
5. 5. Your partner can play with her for sometime and you yourself can take a nap or have a cup of coffee, along with reading a book or scrolling your phone.

We would have to find a way to make ourselves adapt in their routine, or try and change their routine slowly. We can find a reason why our toddler is not napping. I found mine… it is just that she wants to play. And I can’t always force her to sleep when she doesn’t want to.

So its better to change ourselves than to force them to change.. slowly as they grow they will keep evolving and being more independent. After all they are still those tiny little humans.

Happy Parenting!