Monday, October 17, 2011

Gah.

I don't normally like to post pure complaints without at least a little sense of humor...but can we just forget today ever happened?

Prita's parents are in the process of getting her to sleep alone--instead of sprawled on top of her mother--and part of their strategy is skip naps so that she's so tired she'll sleep anywhere, anyhow. This works really well for a parent who works full time and doesn't have to deal with a nap-less two-year-old. I really felt very sorry for the poor little thing. By 1:30, she was begging me for a nap. "Sleepy time now? Sleepy time now? Pleeeeease?" I was under orders, however.

You can imagine how well this went. By 3:00, the child was a total basketcase. Everything caused tantrums and crying. Each time I would pick something up from the floor, be it a length of yarn, trash, or a book, she would start screaming for it and would not calm down until I handed it to her. As soon as the random object was in her hands, however, it would be forgotten. She cried because she wanted a bath. When I gave her a bath, she cried because she didn't like it. When I tried to put her anklets back on after her bath, it was as if I was torturing her. She went from sobbing like her heart was breaking to arching her back and screaming to running to her grandma to tattle on me. I'm still not sure why that last one resulted in Granny coming in to yell at me. I'm still confused.


Better still, the time that would usually be devoted to her nap--the best hour and a half of my day--was spent scrubbing the drip pans of their electric range. I'm not sure this had ever been done before,  but Granny decided that today was the day and I was the girl to get it done.

Tomorrow starts at 7:00 a.m. God grant me patience. Please.

1 comment:

Elephantschild said...

I remember my gramma telling me about the daycare at her church, and how the caretakers were sometimes told by the parents to NOT let the kids nap, so they would sleep that night. Frankly, it makes me very sad and sick to my stomach. Those poor little kids.

It backfires with some kids, though. Mine, at age 18 mos, would be so wound up and hyper by bedtime without a nap that day that bedtime was a nightmare.