Thanks for the advice! How would you turn it back to the parent? For instance, I woke the child up after 3 hours, and when they saw that all the navy blue cups were in the sink and they had yellow instead, they collapsed on the floor and have been whining, shrieking, and half-heartedly whacking toys around the other room ever since. Haven't changed out of their pull-up; haven't come in for a snack. I've pulled the snack table out of their view so they'll leave the other kids alone. Trying to engage in sympathetic conversation only elicits roaring. Time for a text message? Something like this?

"Hey! Li'l Bubba is up from their nap. Unfortunately, they are too sad to join us for the snack and have been screaming for a while. Since this is making snack time sad for everybody else, they're going to need to head home early today."

The bummer is they're shouting "Mama! Mama? Ma-MA!" over and over, so pick up is going to be a reward. I've spoken to the parent about making sure that the day is SUPER-BORING and NO FUN if they have to be picked up, but that's not how I think it went the other day I texted for pickup.

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