Originally Posted by spud912:
My daughter went through that stage. I thought....maybe she's done with naps. After a few days of keeping her up, I quickly realized that she does need her naps, it's just a power struggle. I hate to say it, but it just takes time to get through that stage. It sounds like you're doing everything right.
I found that 18 months-24 months old and 2 1/2 to 3 years old are a couple of the worst "stages." The 18 month-old children lack communication skills and fine motor skills and get easily frustrated as a result. The 2 1/2 year old children like to test boundaries and power struggle. It does improve somewhat after they turn 3, but not nearly as much as you would like. My daughter is 3 and 2 months, so I will let you know when there is drastic improvement.
The only thing that really worked with my daughter (who is quite the fire bomb) was to lock her in her room during nap times and let her do whatever. It sounds terrible, but it usually would put her to sleep within 10 minutes once she realized she lost the battle. Then I would sneak and unlock it so she would not have a meltdown when she woke up. The occasional ornery day now only takes a quick threat to lock the door to straighten her up.
Thank you both it's amazing how just hearing that others have gone or are going through something similar can help. I just needed reassurance that I should keep fighting the battle. I had to tell him that he wouldn't be allowed to play trains or do art and let him SCREAM for a while before he finally gave in. It was a short nap but I'm glad I didn't give in. I feel like telling the parents of my newborn dcb that they have it easy and to enjoy!