Look, I can empathize with you. I had a non-napping child as well. However, I never, ever expected her to disregard her policies, the law, the rights of the other kids to nap or her own right to some down time. I made it clear to my daughter that she was to lay quietly and she would never sleep but she would always lay quietly. I have a home daycare business and I've always stuck to my nap policy. I get that parents don't want their providers to force their kids to sleep, but who says they have to sleep? I require them to lay quietly for a good portion of nap time. Please remember that you may not be the only parent with kids in your provider's care so she may have other people to please other than you. Also, when was the last time that you had to try to pacify a 3 year old without waking 5 other sleeping children? It's no easy task. As far as this business of providers not being willing to take on a challenge, I have to respectfully disagree. I love a good challenge, but I also know when it's a challenge that I don't want to take on. Your job is not like our jobs. I'm not saying that one job is better than the other, I'm just saying that they are totally different jobs. You can't compare taking on a challenge at your job to taking on a challenge at ours. Totally different. You have a boss and a goal to accomplish. We don't have bosses but we have many different people to try to make happy. It's apples and oranges.

It's great that you are willing to offer up suggestions to your provider. That's a good thing. I wish that more parents would do that, because it truly is a team effort. I'd gladly take suggestions from the parents of the kids in my care if I needed some help and I have asked for suggestions when I come across a situation that I need help on. My ego's not so big that I think that I'm the authority on all things child related. I know that you offer your provider suggestions and you say that you are on her side, but some of your comments about her tend to give me the impression that she's not doing good enough for you. I get the feeling that you think that the grass would be greener on the other side. Could just be me, I guess, but you seemed a little passive-aggressive about your provider.

If you're not happy with the nap time situation, then I think that you should try to find a provider who doesn't have napping kids or you need to keep reinforcing with your daughter that naptime is quiet time. That means no playing or talking or any other activity that could get loud. Since the other kids do nap, then it's your job to find a way to make it work. If the shoe were on the other foot, and your kid was the one with the interrupted nap, you'd expect the same, I'd bet.

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