My 3-year-old is in that fun phase where he definitely needs a nap, but he definitely does not want to take one.
His reasoning?
“I only sleep when the sun sleeps.”
It’s probably my own fault. A few months ago, he was fighting bedtime. It was 9 p.m. and he kept jumping out of bed and running to my room. After probably the fifth time of me walking him back to his room and tucking him back into bed, I pointed out his window.
“Look, the sun is asleep,” I told him. “That means River needs to sleep.”
Somehow, it worked. But 3-year-olds are very literal. Flash forward to now, and River won’t sleep during the day — even if he admits he is sleepy. Because the sun is awake.
I get it, toddlers grow out of naps. We’ve tried replacing naps with quiet time. But most days, he could really use an actual nap. Sometimes we get lucky with a car nap while running errands or he’ll fall asleep reading during his quiet time.
But now daylight saving time is in full swing. And for some reason, Indianapolis is in the eastern time zone. Which means the sun does not set until 9 p.m. And that means my overly tired 3-year-old is fighting both naps and bedtime. All because the sun is awake.
We’ve tried black out curtains. We’ve tried the red-light, green-light sound machine method. We’ve tried telling him the sun is getting ready for bed, too. He’s just adamant that he and the sun need to be on the same sleep schedule.
If anyone has tips, please send them my way.
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Darian Benson is a mom of two toddler boys who have endless energy. You can reach her at darian.benson@mirrorindy.org.
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