The Guilded Age

I have long been a nap time Nazi.  I like to think (won't admit otherwise) that I am pretty easygoing about a great many things but nap time has never been one of them.  When my son was a baby I would plan any and every day and event around being home at nap time.  We weren't missing an afternoon nap to go to the zoo.  Unless someone might die, we weren't going somewhere at 11:30 because nap time is at 12:00 and I can't risk him falling asleep in the car thirty minutes early.  It would throw off our entire lives.

If I was trying to put him to sleep at the correct time and your voice projected too much I would come out and stare daggers at you.  I was ultra sensitive to every single noise that was made during the falling asleep period of nap time. 

My son was always tough to get to sleep through the night so it was really important to me to keep his sleeping body clock on schedule lest I go even more insane.  I read that keeping your child awake all day can make the baby overtired and make it harder for he or she to fall asleep at bedtime.  And man did that ever seem true. 

So when my son in the past few months has been refusing to take naps I was at first worried.  But I soon realized that he was now able to stay up all day get cranky at 6 and fall asleep early and stay asleep all night.  It was like a party in my brain and I was actually invited.  It was so awesome.  I had hours and hours to me and my husband alone.  Alone.  With an adult!  We said all kinds of things that you would never say in front of child like asshat and knob job.  And we watched trash television.  I felt just like when I was ten and would watch MTV with my fingers on the disney channel numbers in case my mom or dad walked in the room.  Oh the debauchery.

I was naive to think it would last.  Now he is old enough to not only skip his nap but also run all over the place at bedtime and giggle.

When I was a kid I always thought parents were just roadblocks to fun but those kids should know it is a two way street.

Now I'm all standing by the door and escorting him back to bed.  Putting him in time out when he should be sleeping not running in and out of his room.