Who is with me on this??

I am are soooo tired of planning a preschool curriculum that the parents signed up for and the reason they send their kids here only to have to deal with these kids being so tuckered out all day monday and sometimes tuesday because the weekend happens. Late nights, early morning, no naps.

It seems like every monday and tuesday i am napping kids by 10am. Some of these kids are 4 plus years old. It really throws a wrench into our program.

I would love to send them home for unable to participate, but then I am going to have parents come back at me with are we not supposed to spend time having fun with our kids over the weekend, we don't see them all week as it is. Let's face it, I can't send every one of my kids home.

I get it, I want to have fun with my kids too, but I am that parent that even weekends, I protect my child's sleep and he still goes to bed at 730pm to730am every daY NO matter what we are doing.... If I know we are going to have a late night, I will have my child nap day of and day after. No time for losing sleep, my child is 7 and has to be mentally ready to go Monday morning and the rest of the week. Not to mention I don't deal with melt downs and when we miss sleep, that's what we have. we do don't have melt downs, mommy don't deal with those......

How can we find a happy medium where parents can still have fun on the weekends with their family/ kids and I don't feel Like I am trying to control and dictate nap your child, don't keep them up all night long because I am the one who has to deal with them come monday/ tuesday. If I were to call a parent to pick up every time they were too tired to participate, I would need to close down.

Let's face it, parents try to do too much these days. HOckey, soccer, baseball, dancing, swimming, birthday parties and so on. If it's not my dck in these functions it's their sibling that plays, so the dck is getting dragged to all of the events and all I hear is how horrible the dcks behavior is day in and day out. Here I get their behavior eventually under wraps.........

I think what the parents don't get is that when their kids miss those naps they think they don't need and keep them up late, or wake up early, the kids will eventually need to make up all that missed sleep. Then we start this downward spiral of the kids coming here, horrific behavior, falling asleep before nap time or even more needing to nap for 3-4 hours becuase they are not going to bed at night at a decent hour.

I have some dcks that fall into this never ending cycle of needing to sleep each day when here for 3+ hours, then the parents say that they are not going to bed until 11pm, even later. I can't with hold sleep, I do try to wake them up, some get up, some don't. The parents blame naps at daycare as the reason why their kids are not napping. I am sooooooo over this.

These parents need to understand, your child is not going to bed at night, 1 because you have no routine, 2 you don't make them, 3 yes, it could be taht they are sleeping way too much when they are here, but when are they supposed to catch up on all that missed sleep from YOU keeping them up late, not napping over the weekend and just not paying attention to how sleep deprived your children are...


UGHHHHH OK vent over....can anyone else share my pain...Oh and thank you if you made it this far. Also, if you have any advice on how I can remedy this issue I am having of the never exhausted children, I would love to hear it..

Thanks everyone!!!!

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Can you lighten your plans for Monday and Tuesday, then get back to "business as usual" by Wednesday? Maybe cut back on the number of planned activities on Monday and Tuesday, or plan easier activities?

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well yes and no..... I already do, but then the kids that are not exhausted 4 out of 12, they have to miss out on our program as well. I have a pre-kinder program and they expect me to have their kids ready to start kinder, but I can't do it when their kids are half alseep and not able to pay any attention....

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I would have a talk with each parent and let them know how their child is be having on monday. Ask that tjey get their child to sleep at a normal hour come Sunday night so they will be well rested to start the week. Or you can have am naps....maybe for an hour when everyone arrives.

I see this more and more with parents that work late hours. I live i a commuting town to NYC and most parents in my neighborhood make that travel every day to work. The neighborhood kids here are in after care till 7 am till 6:30 pm and then sent to a babysitter till 7:30/8 pm. They don't have dinner till 9am most nights! The parents never do their homework with the kids, it is all done in aftercare. Then they cram all their errands in on the weekends with no quality family time. Sorry to vent.

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This is so typical. And why I make (yep I said make) my SA kids do homework directly after their snack when they get in. That way that doesn't have to be done at home, saving parents time. (just another service I don't charge enough for lol).

I agree with talking with the parents, sending notes, do whatever you need to to let them know how important sleep is. Maybe a print out of how much sleep that age of kids need. TELL them, your child may not be ready for Kindy without extra sleep, and will likely not survive kindy with the sleep they are getting now. If that doesn't work, I would change my program on Mondays and tell the parents I am doing it and why.

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I agree with maybe omitting preschool on Mondays and telling parents why. Also, find a good article on why kids need sleep and how important it is, how it can affect them, then pass it onto them all.

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I honestly think that if I omit it on Monday's they will just not care even more about what time their child goes to bed on Sunday night or they will think that because they got plenty of rest on Monday and no class, they can stay up later on Monday...

Not to mention, that I am participating in a program that requires me to have x amount of preschool hours in order to qualify as a pre-kinder program. So this would be like telling your school age childs school/ teacher not to teach on Monday, my kids going to be too tired....

I have already scaled way back on monday, changed our park days to Wed., instead of Tue. The other issue that I have is, is that my house is not big enough to let kids nap and have some kids awake. Then I have kids up during nap time and the others that really need those naps can't sleep becuase the other kids are creating noise.

I seriously want to pull my hair out.

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Well then you have no choice but to get tough with parents and tell them if their child can't participate they must be picked up. You are in a pickle and HAVE to do this. Send out a notice.

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I think we all face this to a point with parents. Mondays are always a tired day here, too. However, I lay down one little guy on Friday at 10 b/c he was tired (he spends Thursdays with mom) but I thought afterwards, "This is crazy. He is 3.5 yo and should be able to stay awake in the morning."

If parents are looking at you as a preschool, then I would continue on as planned. If the kids are too tired to learn effectively, have a little chat with parents. Let them know their child was tired today. I would not lie them down but continue on with the lesson as planned. If they are falling asleep, call for pick up then? I think this area is a bit sticky for providers.

Maybe a general info sheet to parents with effects of not getting enough rest, in the guise of prepping for kinder, followed by a chat with individual parents when you notice their child is falling asleep. You know they want to spend time with their kids however you know they want a preschool program for their child, as well. Their kids can't learn without proper rest and it's a good habit to get into for school.

They also won't be able to lie down at school for a morning nap b/c they had a busy weekend.

When you lie them down early, what do they do for the rest of quiet time when everyone else is asleep? Is everyone else able to rest? I'm guessing it causes issues for you, b/c I know it does here.

I think this causes you headaches. Not the parents.

I'm following for ideas with this, as well.

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