Yes, this actually happened. And yes, Pixie actually said this.
Man, did I get an earful from that kid last week. The girls had been in school almost two weeks already, but Pixie’s kindergarten class only did half-days the first couple of weeks. The day they started full days was the day of “The Dreaded Nap.” As Pixie so succinctly told her teacher, “I don’t do naps.” And she doesn’t. Hasn’t, in fact, since she was 18 months old. Not for lack of trying on my part. I used to do my dangedest to wear that kid out so she’d sleep for an hour or so in the afternoons. But no matter what I tried – long walks around the neighborhood, swimming in the local pool, never-ending games of tag – nothing seemed to wear her out. In fact, I usually only wore myself out, which made the problem even worse.
So eventually, I struck a deal with Pixie, which was that so long as she played quietly in her room for 2 hours every afternoon, I would not force her to take a nap. And this is pretty much the deal her pre-school teacher struck with her as well. But in kindergarten, it’s a whole different ball game. They don’t have a separate room she can sit in to read or play a game. She has to stay with her class and the class has to lie down and be quiet. They don’t have to sleep, but they do have to be quiet. And Pixie does not like that one bit. Nor did she care for the puppet that was offered to her when she complained about it.
Other than that though, the first few weeks of school have gone well. We start Girl Scouts again this week, which should be interesting, and I’m finding my free time being eaten up just as much as it was before both girls were in school. I can’t seem to catch a break so I will have to continue to cut back on some of the work stuff that I do. I’ll continue to cartoon, and hopefully will get “Rats!” back up and running this week, along with one or two other regular blog posts, but beyond that, I make no promises. I’m working from 5-6:30AM these days just to get some extra hours in, and even then, I’m still having a hard time getting everything done. Hopefully though, now that we’re finally on a regular school schedule things will even out.
But you and I both know they won’t, so I’ll survive as best I can.
My girl wouldn’t nap, either. I’m sure it’s payback for something I did in a past life.
Kat,
Princess took very long, 2-3 hour naps, up until she was almost 6. It was heaven! But Pixie gave up her naps at 18 months, and it drove me crazy. Nap time was writing time for me, and we fought tooth and nail over whether she was going to lay down and be quiet or not. Now it’s between her and her teacher, and out of my hands, thankfully.