The No-Nap Blues: I’m singin’ ’em.
Yesterday, I, the Ever-Suffering Mother, sat through an hour of listening to my child whine in the next room. “I don’t want to sleep. Let me up. Let me up!” (As if I were physically holding her down on the bed. However, if she’s going to continue believing herself stuck in bed, I’m not gonna enlighten her.)
Later in the afternoon, I spoke with one of the members of my Maternal Support Team (a.k.a. “Mom”).
Ever-Suffering Mother: Why didn’t she go to sleep? I think I don’t like her at all.
Maternal Support Team: (makes indistinct noises without committing the blasphemy of speaking against her granddaughter)
ESM: (wails) I just wish I knew what I did wrong!
MST: (finally kicking into supportive mode) You didn’t do a single thing wrong. Sometimes these things just happen.
ESM: No. Something went wrong. I did something different, and I will figure out what it was so it never happens again. (shakes fist at the other room where Z happily plays with her stuffed animal friends)
MST: Really, sometimes these things just happen, and you can’t control them–
ESM: Can so. I know I turned around three times in the kitchen before her naptime. That might have influenced it. Or her sound machine…maybe the volume got adjusted up or down after we brought it back from your house. Or I sang the second verse of her second lullaby in the wrong key. I will figure it out!
MST: (laughs)
By the time my Spousal Support Team (a.k.a. “Husband”) returned home from work, I was a total wreck. Still in my sweatpants, hair tied back in a nasty black scarf (the color of mourning), wondering if I’d ever have time to work on my manuscript again. Feeling a little sick from self-medicating with half a bag of Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate chips. (Oh wait, that’s every evening. Tears optional. Maybe change the color of the scarf.)
Really, though, what do stay-at-homies DO when their child stops taking naps? Do they have a second child to distract the first? Do they run away from home? What I’d like to do is institute a three-hour Solitude and Quiet Time. And, yeah, maybe run away for a couple of days.
Beth Hull 
I would suggest you run away to here, but you would have to bring Z child!
I sympathize, but my sleep issues with children are in the overnight & early morning hours – bleh!! If one of the boys fights naps, then it’s still a “quiet time” (aka, separation from MOM time). And yes, sometimes it’s anything BUT quiet, but I still get to eat with the TV blaring my favorite 1/2 hour soap & sometimes the ice cream comes out right after the lunch is done! Even at 4.5, I insist on a separation time from D. Us SAHM’s need that! Unite!
And you really just eat chocolate chips straight outta the bag, huh? Nice!
Vicki, yes, I do eat those chocolate chips! Desperation is the root of that little problem. If there isn’t anything else, I’m not afraid to settle. It’s better than making an entire batch of cookies (something else I’ve been known to do).
She’s gotten back into the napping (thank goodness), but I know we’ll need “quiet” time someday. Glad you can get yours!