Should a five-year-old be forced to take a nap or sit quietly for 45-minutes? Or perhaps a better question would be can you even expect a five-year-old to be able to do either? Family psychologist John Rosemond has a parenting column in our local paper, The Mobile Press Register, each Sunday. This week a parent asked for help with this issue. Her five-year-old started kindergarten this year and has been labeled a trouble maker because he’s not able to nap or sit quietly during the school-imposed mandatory 45-minute nap/quiet time. If students don’t want to nap, they must lie quietly. The parent wanted to know if the doctor could recommend some disciplinary methods the teacher might use to stop her son’s behavior.
I find it hard to believe a school would attempt to make a child in kindergarten take a nap. Tyler stopped napping at least three years ago. Quiet time? Forget about it. I tried that last year and it didn’t work, and all I wanted was 20-30 minutes.
Dr. Rosemond’s reply was basically what I was thinking. He said he was “amazed” that the school had this mandatory nap time when most kids this age have stopped napping for at least two years. He also believes the schools rules are not only unrealistic, but they show that the school’s administration is too rigid. He also feels the poor child may continue to be falsely labeled a troublemaker if he is not able to conform and this label may follow him from grade to grade.
One suggestion he offered was to see if the child’s teacher would allow him to sit in an isolated part of the room where he can read or play quietly during this time. If this was not possible he suggests the parent might want to look into placing her son in another school to avoid the troublemaker label.
I know there is no way Tyler would take a nap or lie quietly for 45 minutes if his school had such a policy. If this was the case, I would have to challenge the policy. It’s not fair to punish a child for something that he may not be capable of doing. And I agree that some teachers would simple label him a troublemaker or difficult. What do you think about this issue? When did your kids stop taking naps? Do any of you have kids in schools that also have a mandatory nap/quiet time?