*deep breathing*
*counting to 10...20...100*

Nothing's working!! :wall: Andie is SO in the "not listening, gonna do what I want to do" frame of mind today....

Tell her to take a nap, she's up twice!! Warnings and subsequent follow-throughs have NO effect on her....except tears, of course! So finally the THIRD time she strolls out of her room, I just don't even look at her, tell her to turn on a movie & have "quiet time" in her room. Not 5 minutes later, she's out walking around again!! ( :pray: Lord give me strength!) So I go in to set her timer for 30 minutes, tell her she's NOT to get out of bed until the timer goes off. I HEAR her now in her room, playing & stuff....I'm not rocking the boat, tho...figure unless she comes out again I'll just pretend I don't hear anything...

It's been like this since lunchtime....everything I say or request goes in one ear & out the other....maybe it has something to do with her being at her grandparent's house all weekend....she's testing me or something....

I know, just keep the faith, tomorrow (hopefully) will be a better day...but just had to vent it out!! lol B)

I went through that with Rachel this weekend. I felt like I was arguing with my wife.

I find that the best way to deal with insubordinance is a merciless neck-nibble or tickling.

:( much better than the way I reacted....think I'll keep that in mind for the next time!! :thumbsup:

Yeah, she's much more cooperative after a good laugh. Takes her mind off of her current mission of being "The most difficult child on earth".

Two words:

Duct Tape

It works on my kids!

:rolf:

Really? I coulda SWORN that was ANDIE'S mission..... :huh:

Andie's 3...right? I think she's bored. She sounds bored. She needs a bro or sis....:eyebrows: I know, I know! Ain't happenin'! I think once you get into the mom program, it'll keep Andie busy and more preoccupied. Yanno? ;)

Bored....that's a thought....because I'm sure Ty's parents kept her busy all weekend, so she's having a big letdown today because it's back to "normal" around here....

Another bro or sis.... :rolf: *wipes away tears of laughter* Thanks for the laugh, I needed it....

You're welcome! I aim to please. ;)

That's what we do with Bubba. It's a great difuser. I just have to make him giggle and he's fine.

ummm, I did that once. Worked for about a day. :blink:

Debby! It's time to cut out the naps! She's trying to tell you something.

She'll be crabby for a couple of days...ok, maybe a week. Then she'll be fine. She'll go to bed earlier (giving you more evening freetime :eyebrows: ) and just sleep right through the night. Sean gave up naps months ago. He's fine! He sleeps 12 hours a night now.

I know Lynn...I know....about the giving up the naps thing! It's partly selfish...I need (or at least think I do) that hour & a half or 2 hours to recharge...and maybe I don't want to admit she's growing up! lol *sigh*

You know we went through this a couple months ago, but we slowly got back into the nap routine....but I really do think it's time to phase them out for good....

When is bedtime for your kids, now that you have a nap-free household?

Our kids quit naps as soon as they were walking. By age 2, anyways. I never pressured them into naps. If they were tired, they'd fall asleep. Otherwise they seemed content without and slept all night. They're bedtimes now are between 8-9.

So, when you started phasing out naps, did you just quit cold turkey? Or put them to bed to see if they fell asleep? Or just had them do "quiet time" in their room for awhile?

Maybe I'll just have to play to see what's going to work with Andie...it WOULD be nice to have her sleep through the night...she's usually waking up twice during the night...which means I wake up twice during the night.... :rollseyes:

It won't be so bad. You'll get used to it...eventually!

Bubba goes to sleep anytime between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Like today, he was totally wiped out because we had to walk to school (no stroller for him due to snow and ice) to get Sarah. So he fell asleep across my lap a little after 7 p.m. He'll sleep until I wake him up at 7 a.m. On the weekends he generally sleeps a little later.

Sarah's bedtime just changed to 8 p.m. this year. She was also going to bed at 7:30 p.m. She needs that 30 minutes to be alone with us, and to get a little time away from her little brother!

Once you eliminate the naps, you might just eliminate the night time drama. She may be so tired, she'll go right to sleep!

Seems like she's been going to bed later and later for you. That's a sign right there that she's sleeping too late during the day. See what happens tomorrow. If she gives you a hard time, take her out of her room and give her quiet time somewhere else. That way you stop associating that time of day with naps.

My daughter is 3 (4 in April) and she takes naps. She goes to bed at 8:30pm & gets up around 7. Which is great. She used to get up around 5:30.

My daughter was doing' kinda the same thing today - she just wouldn't listen to a thing I said - I had to repeat myself several times. It was driving me crazy. I finally made her sit on her bed for a timeout - and took all her stuffed animals out of the room. She hated that! After that she came out of her room saying, "Daddy - I weally sowey. I wanna obey."

Score 1 for dad.

Gutter! You finally got a female to submit! Congratulations!!!

My kids take naps only when they're behaving like little animals. You know the behavior - when they are tired but trying to run out the last bit of energy on hyperdrive. Many times, I'll let them do it. But if I'm trying to do lessons with Nichole and Kristen's a Screaming Mimi, it's time for a nap. And she'll lay in her bed and cry. And she'll try to come out. And she'll lay there and go "Daaaaaaaaaaaadddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

I'm a little firmer than my wife. When I determine it's naptime, It's Naptime!

I look at it this way. She can take a nap and I'll be pleasant to be around, or she can stay up, frazzle that last nerve, and I become a raging maniac (literally!).

Nichole still takes naps on rare occasions. When she's being that way I put both the kids down and I take a break. Sometimes I'll fall asleep in my easy chair. Either way, that's the most peaceful hour or two in the day!

Maybe she just really wants to be with mommy. :) I think most toddlers/young kids get in those days. Maybe you guys could watch the movie together next time and snuggle.... or I like Reds idea :thumbsup:

Really? I was wondering about when that happened.... some days I don't think my guy needs a nap either....

I think you kinda hit the nail on the head....the days when we spend ALOT of time doing stuff together, she's more likely to go down for her naps & better at bedtime...the days when I'm running around doing housework, she's more likely to act up....I've said it before, "negative attention is better than NO attention"....WHY don't I listen to my own advice?? :doh:

Side note: after going 5 days without naps, I've come to the conclusion that my daughter is NOT ready to give up her naps!! Don't ask... :tease:...but after that many days without naps things were progessing downhill....

Sooooo....I've been making a concentrated effort to include her in everything I do during the day...asking her if she wants to help me do laundry, dishes, fold clothes, whatever I'm doing. Sometimes she'll say yes, sometimes no....but since I've been making that effort PLUS implementing her "reward flowers" (see my journal entry for today)...naptimes and bedtimes have been working like a charm! :thumbsup:

Yeah :)

Sometimes I'm not liking that part... sometimes I just want to be alone but he wants to hang all over me.... those are the days for me. The days I want to be alone and read a book and I am tired but he wants me to actively play and give him attention. He then starts getting on my nerves any way he can :wall:

I know it....the days I'm PMSing, or when I haven't had a good night's sleep, or I'm stressing about something...that's when I don't have the energy to put into actively spending quality time with Andie...so that's when I'll pull out her craft stuff or something like that...stuff she doesn't get to do very often so it's kinda new, but she can still more or less do on her own...

I'M the COOL MOMMY because it's new & fun stuff....AND she entertains herself for awhile to give me downtime...

I kinda feel guilty, but in a way I'm looking forward to her going to PreK in the fall.... :unsure:

Well, I don't FORCE it if it's every now & then, but Andie canNOT go days on end without a nap. Now, she's at the stage that I don't have to plan stuff around naptime, I just adjust her bedtime...but she's not ready to give them up totally...

So if your little one doesn't want to take a nap one day (is he just down to one? How old is he?), go for it....just bump up the bedtime to a little earlier that night....