Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Sleep

When Joy was younger she would sleep anywhere, then again most newborns do. Then somewhere along the way it became sleep in the car seat, crib or playpen. She is slowly getting more selective about where she sleeps. Now I am also more selective about where we are at nap time. I am not a nap nazi as one of my friends calls herself, but I am pretty sure she needs one each day and I do my best to give her that opportunity in an appropriate location. I prefer her naps be in a "bed" either the playpen or crib, but on trips I schedule the trip to have her napping at least part of it in the car. Well anyway my observation is these kids I see out and about sleeping ANYWHERE! Saturday at a restaurant a family of 3 comes in child is 2-3 years old and out like a light! They ordered sat down and were eating with the child sleeping on the bench between them! If Joy was that tired I would head home or wherever I was staying at that time, I would not let her sleep on the seat at a restaurant, if I was hungry and had no food that's what drive thrus are for! Then take her and put her to sleep in her bed.
I have also seen kids in grocery carts between the ages of 2-4 nodding off! I don't understand? Joy doesn't do this, is it because I am trained to take her home at nap time to let her sleep there? Or are these kids just able to sleep anywhere and the parents take advantage of that? Now Joy gets pretty cranky come time to rest. Her toddler side comes out with full force. Do these other kids not have sleepy tells? I can tell when Joy is tired, and I usually do something about it. I either do something to energize her or she goes to bed. It's not that hard to do! Isn't the child's sleep more important than your eating out or grocery shopping? Mine is!

2 comments:

Electric Monk said...

The one that always surprises me is the kids sleeping at weird times. You see the four-year old asleep in his stroller at 11 am, or napping on Mom's shoulder at 7 pm. Maybe we're just too anal about it...

Anonymous said...

I was nearly a nap Nazi. I planned my schedule around when they were going to be tired, because otherwise, life was not pleasant! Mine never fell asleep in shopping carts (unless in their car seats as an infant) or at restaurants.