I Stopped My Kids Daytime Naps For MY Own Sanity

Does that sound a bit selfish?

Maybe.

Or even worse, maybe it sounds counter productive because, hello?!  This is when you get a chance to have that hot cup of coffee or check a few emails in between the demands of the little king/queen of your household.  It could be that this is when you refill your sanity cup.

Not me though.

Here are a few things I know:

1. My children hate sleep.  It often makes me question whether they really are my children at all – if it wasn’t for the fact that I watched all three of them being pushed out of my body and that they have my inherent stubbornness, I’d probably do some tests just to make sure.
2. From the age of a year and a half (or 18 months for those still talking in the month bracket) sleeping even for just 30 minutes during the day would result in them only going to sleep at around 10pm.  Yes, you did read that correctly. 10pm.
3. The hours between 8 and 10pm are sacred hours.  If I don’t get that time to decompress and take a break then I am not a very good Mom.  Or Wife.  Actually, I turn into a pretty rubbish person on all fronts.
4. I don’t want to be a rubbish person.

If you’ve been stopping by here regularly, I would hope that the love that I have for my children would be pretty evident through all of the words I have written.  So let’s just agree that this is not in question here when I tell you that I have considered cutting off my own ears/piercing my own eyeballs/running the heck away when anyone of my kids have strayed into the past 8pm time slot.

If it was all snuggles and whisperings of I love you’s then maybe I’d more inclined to be there.  But we all know that only happens in the movies.

Having actually been there, you’ll know it’s along the lines of them shouting “I need more water“, “I don’t want to sleep“, “I’m too hot, now I’m too cold“, “But where did babies come from?”, “Why are you doing this to me? I’m not tired“, “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah” and you shouting, “I said get back into bed“, “Shh!“, “Stop talking“, “I’m warning you, I said stop talking”, “Just talk one more time and you can put yourself to sleep“, “I double dare you to say one more thing” (this is combined with the sternest look you could possibly muster that actually looks flipping terrifying because it’s not even an act), “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!’

When we decided to cut the day time sleep everyone was astounded.  They couldn’t believe that our kids didn’t sleep in the day and in turn I couldn’t believe that theirs did.  In fact I was jealous.

But it just didn’t work for us.  And that’s OK.  Because we haven’t all produced Gina Ford children*.

*That’s not a dig at parents who have used the Gina Ford method, it’s just an acknowledgment that we aren’t all the same.

A friend recently mentioned to me that they had just cut their daughters sleeps and that she was feeling rather bad about it.  So I just wanted to say, to those Moms out there that are keeping their kids awake during the day and having a harder than usual “suicide hour”, to the Moms that need to do this to keep their sanity, I see you.

And it’s OK – I’ve got your back.

All clothing in the above image are from Mr Price Fashion