Pout About- October 3, 2014
I’m over here pouting. Lips twisted, arms crossed, eyes rolled. Pouting. So is my nearly 4-year-old. She is pouting too. We sit and pout for one reason. The same reason. She’s trying to give up her nap.
I want her to sleep the same time as her baby brother so I can tap away on the laptop or unload the dishwasher without anyone trying to grab a serrated knife. I just want to watch “South Park” on the iPad while I clean the kitchen. It’s a new season! I want Eric Cartman to fire away with all the “shits” and “damns” he wants to without it falling on my children’s ears. I want to sometimes take my own nap because I’m tired after waking up at 5:30am with the baby, I’m getting over a cold and it’s Friday and I just can. If she would go to sleep, I could.
Other mothers say “Just do quiet time in her room!” We do that. She is still restless and begs for my attention. They say, “Put on a movie and crash on the couch.” Yeah, I could do that, but I’m always taking TV and movie privileges away as punishment and I have to follow through. Damn my conscientious parenting! Really, I just want her to take a freakin’ nap because she acts like someone else’s menacing, naughty child when she doesn’t.
No one feels my pain. No one cares about this plight. This is the look Erin gave me when I told her Charlotte was giving up her nap. It says, “Really, Amy?! No one feels sorry for you.”
A dear sweet reader reminded me “You’ve had a good run.” after I was complaining on Instagram. ::sigh:: We HAVE had a good run. She’s almost 4. I hear horror stories of kids giving up naps at 2. I can’t, ya’ll. I can’t. That’s too early.
Never mind me. I’m just going to pout. I’m in good pouting company, after all.
Spread it around:
Will gave up his nap at 3.5. I was in the first trimester of pregnancy with Katherine. I needed a damn nap. John still took his nap. So I set Will up with his own Netflix profile and showed him how to work it. Then I took my naps on the couch while he watched TV to his heart’s content. The good thing was that Bill never let Will watch TV, so Will was all about two hours of unfettered TV time at nap time that summer. Now, John is starting to give up his nap. So John and Will sit downstairs and watch TV on weekends and school breaks, and Katherine and I sleep upstairs like good southern girls should. I blame the Yankees for the loss of nap time. My husband says, “You people sleep in the afternoon because it’s too damn hot to do anything else.” He says that like it’s a bad thing. Sorry about the nap loss. It’s a hard time in anyone’s life. You gotta fight for your right to nap.
Also, I would advise against taking away TV as punishment because that’s like punishing yourself, and you didn’t do anything wrong!
Brooke was still napping at 3.5 (gave it up at 3 3/4 yrs I guess) and I.Was.Devastated!!!! LOL.