My son slept alot less than my daughter during the day. She'd have naps after getting home from ELC (kindy, when she was 4). And thankfully she'd still go to bed at normal time at night.

It makes it hard when kids start having later naps. Perhaps you could keep him going past the 3 - 3.30pm nap time, with some quiet activities, and get him into bed earlier. He might wake earlier in the morning though.

T never got to have late afternoon naps really, as he had to be awake so we could collect A from school. At the latest he'd have a nap for an hour or so from 1.30pm, allowing us to leave at 3pm.

I also found I'd put him in bed and he'd just lay there quietly for a while, not sleep at all, but would be nice and quiet and rest for the hour or two and that would do him.

A had more freedom, being the first child. She could sleep whenever she wanted. If she slept till 5pm she was still then tired enough to go to bed at 7 or 7.30pm.

Maybe you could let him sleep at 3pm and wake him, say an hour or so later. Not letting him have a full on nap, but enough to keep him going. Even though it always feels awful to wake a sleeping child.

Oh, T stopped having a daytime nap when he was about 3 1/2 (from memory, which isn't very good...my memory that is). A when she was almost 5 (she'd sleep at school in rest time too).

Not sure if that helps you. Every child is different.

hmmm...such a long time ago! :p...:)

I think by the time my girls went to preschool they didn't have afternoon naps...preschool sort of weened them off them...not that preschool didn't have quiet time...they just never slept...maybe on the odd occasion they did. I know as they got older they didn't want naps...so after an afternoon of them whinning at me, I would give them an early meal and send them to bed...if I remember correctly they always got up about 5:30/6am...and were told to stay in their rooms until the sun was up...or something like that...sorry too long ago :)

probably didn't help...but, I felt like talking :p

I missed your birthday! :(...I am so sorry...

oh well...

"Happy Belated Birthday!" :)

With Brooke I was really really unlucky, the girl just never needed much sleep and she dropped her day time sleep when she was 18 months! She would of course go to bed early, around5.30 to 6 pm but it made for a long long day.

With Jack he's a different kettle of fish. He has always liked his sleep and at the moment we are playing it by ear with his sleeps and he was 3 in May. Somedays he will sleep, somedays he wont, it depends on what is going on here in the house. When he is really tired and he has a sleep he will sleep from 2.30 to around 5 sometimes and even though this means he wont go to bed until around 8.30 as opposed to 7.30 it means that Brooke and I can have some quality time together.

There's really no hard and fast rule and like most of parenting I guess you just find your way.

I hope that helps ...:)

Sophie was about two and a half and I would put her to bed and rather than going to sleep she would lie awake singing or talking. Occasionally she would still go to sleep, but those occasions became more infrequent. In the end I would leave her there - since she was happy to stay - for about an hour and then get her up. She would still get tired but we would just push through rather than give her late nap that would then interfere with her night time bed time. She would still fall asleep in the car - which she occasionally still does. Although now it doesn't tend to interefere with her bedtime anymore.

While losing that afternoon sleep time meant that I lost my "me time", it did make the day more flexible in terms of getting out and about.

my boys are 3 (4 in January) and 4 (5 in October) and the days that they are home from preschool, they still have afternoon naps. thats mainly because i push them, so i can get my housework etc done.

at preschool they have "rests" on a matress, and very rarely do they fall asleep.

we're moving on from naps at home, and progressing to rests if they are tired from preschool etc, where they go and play quietly in their rooms or lay on their beds.

weekends however are a different story. if we've spent the day at home, by 1pm ive had enough, and its rest time.


none of it has affected the 7pm bedtime - touch wood - but my problem is mornings lol. no matter how late i keep them up, they're still up at 5:30am. i spose thats a good sleep though lol.

oh man, can't remember

mine all stopped having a regular nap around 2 I guess ... and I would arrange my day around them and they would always be earlish.

If they wanted to go to sleep after say 3.00 I'd say no way .. and I'd keep them busy and then I'd make them an early dinner and they'd go to bed early .. and they'd sleep all night until normal time.

Sorry Laura, Alice is still having hers so I don't really have any advice. I do find that even the late afternoon ones (getting up at say 5pm) are better than no nap at all. Surprisingly, they don't seem to stop her being ready for bed at 7pm.