Napportunities is a word that I came up with which simply means opportunities for napping. I offer my boys a napportunity every day and my eldest two rarely take it. I mean, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. So while I have them lie down and "rest their bodies", they do everything but slap themselves in the face to stay awake. Wait, oh yes, I do believe that Henry has slapped himself in the face before in order to stay awake.
I have learned to let this go because the perk of your preschool age children not napping is that they will go to bed earlier at night. That sounds horrible but, let's face it, after 13 hours of parenting, it's time to clock out. I recently had a bout with 24-hour a day parenting while Elliot had Hand, Foot & Mouth disease. It was dreadful, the kid was in so much pain and had huge sores in his mouth. I felt awful for him but also a little awful for me because he couldn't sleep and would be up whining at all hours but, being two, often refused medicine at 3 a.m. or spit it all over my comforter (He was sleeping in our bed while Adam slept in Elliot's bed). The point being, I had a recent experience with 24/7 parenting lately and the Lord sustained me and I wanted to be there for Elliot but, on a day to day basis, I know that we need to shut it down at a decent hour if nobody's going to nap.
I get angry when my kids abstain during their napportunity and then try and fall asleep in the car at like 5 p.m. I am like, "Heck no! You missed your napportunity, son and now it's too late! You have to wait until BEDTIME, which will be at 7 p.m. tonight! Maybe you'll listen to me tomorrow during your napportunity!" (they don't.) I know that they are young and I shouldn't be upset about them not being able to keep their eyes open but I often do because we all need sleep, friends and my eldest son gets aggressive when he's super tired and my middle gets whinier and if everyone would nap, we could have such a pleasant evening.
But, alas, there is no point in crying over sailed ships. I just would be remiss if I missed this opportunity to introduce you to napportunity. Let's not take naps for granted. Over and Out.
P.S. I love my children, no one get their panties in a wad, please. This is all for funsies.
