Toddler Nap Dibs

Naps on the weekend are a sacred time in any household with kids. There is a very limited time during daylight hours where a child is sleeping, and the parents are free to do whatever they want. Our weekend nap time routine has a fairly predictable pattern. We usually spend about thirty minutes to an hour frantically getting tasks done that would be impossible if little man was awake. We then spend whatever time remains relaxing.

The interesting part of this routine is when the toddler awakens. As those familiar sounds begin to emerge from his room, an almost primal situation occurs. His mother and I look at each other like two opponents ready to do battle. As I said, there are only a precious few minutes of relaxation available. For the person who must go get the awakening toddler, this time is cut short and also usually punctuated by a wet diaper, cries for juice, and a generally very cranky toddler.

We have developed a system similar to the childhood tradition of calling dibs. The basics go something like this. The parent that is able to yell first that the other parent is coming gets to remain seated. For example, if my wife is able to get out,"Your father is coming" first, then I have to go. You might think that you could just say this before the toddler awakens, but we have ground rules to prevent this. If you yell prematurely and awaken the toddler, then you're up sweetheart.

It makes for some pretty interesting routines during nap time. You never want to be too far from the stairs because if you are, then you can't hear him stirring in time. We also have a baby monitor still in his room, so I've adopted the strategy of turning the volume way down so only I can hear it. That drew some complaints early on.

As you can imagine, I lose these battles a lot, so I've adopted a plan to salvage the situation and gain some parenting status points. Every time I go up the stairs I say,"Daddy's here. Momma left." You can imagine how that goes.