The 'perfect storm' of naptimes

You know what the best thing about children under age 3 is? They nap! In the middle of the day, amid the chaos and mess, you find a brief child-free oasis where you can drink a cup of coffee while it's still hot... where you can lie down for a few minutes.... where you can work uninterrupted. It's amazing how a job that takes half an hour with kids around can be accomplished in 5 minutes without them.

I love naptimes. I don't know if there's a real science to getting little children to nap.... if they are sufficently tired and sufficiently fed, then they should nap. Of course, the baby naps more than the bigger ones, but all my three little puffballs nap.

Sometimes, even a tired little puffball will not nap. This is something I fail to understand.... your bed is soft, your room is warm, you have your teddies... why do you want to stand around the living room kvetching when you could be napping? It's moments like these when I wish I could switch places with one of my kids. I'll go nap and they can take care of the baby and put away the laundry.

There is an advantage to having the kids napping in shifts... you can focus your time and attention on one child while the others are asleep. It's good for each child to have a little time alone with mommy and not have to compete for attention with siblings. A lot of times, this is just how things happen in my house... one child is tired but the others aren't. What do you do? Sometimes it's better to put one child down to sleep than to attempt to do something with 2 happy kids and one kvetchy one.... that just leads to 3 kvetchy kids.

But what if one child is only borderline kvetchy? What do you do? I'll tell you you what I do... I take my little almost-tired one, put on his shoes and plop him in the stroller. Time for a walk! Time to go to the park! I give him a chance to 'burn out' so that he will be good and ready for a nap when we return from the walk or the park or whatever.

Then we come to the magical point in time and space where all three of my little puffballs are tired and go down for a nap at the same time. This is the 'perfect storm'. I can do anything I want uninterrupted and unimpeded.

That's the first parenting secret that I'm sharing. You can get anything accomplished no matter how many kids you have.... as long as they're napping!