How to Prevent Toddlers from Napping in the Car
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Sleeping children are a beauty to behold, especially at home in their beds. I’ve never been a stickler for kids napping at home. I’m okay, in fact, more than okay with car naps on a long drive. Ever sit in bumper-to-bumper LA traffic with a screaming baby?
Yeah, you know what I’m talking about….
However, if it’s a quick trip from the park to home, I’d rather they waited before they snoozed. A 15-minute catnap is enough to blow a 3-hour naptime out of the water.
I’ve had toddlers for the last 12 years now and nothing’s changed. If I don’t engage my little one for the entire ride, she will fall asleep, even if we are one block from home. So, we try to keep FishBaby awake until her crib is in sight.
Here are some ways we attempt this miraculous feat:
- Sing songs, NOT lullabies. Try rousing, piraty, laughing, clapping songs.
- Talk about the day. Beginning babblers often love this.
- Ask questions that require an active response, like “Where’s your nose?” “Point to your eyes.”
- Look for vehicles of a certain color or look for tractors, fire engines, etc.
- Hunt for the monkey in the trees. Yes, I lie to my kiddo. But, it works. We talk about monkeys and look for them in the trees we pass.
I have the opposite problem….mine will not sleep in the car, never has, even when we want him to!
Since he’s starting to show interest in reading we’ve started playing the “what sound does (insert letter)” or “what word starts with the letter (insert letter)” game. We work on ABC’s , spelling.. anything to keep him talking and learning..counting cows works too. I let him quiz me and he loves it!
My oldest was terrible about falling asleep in the van, then not napping when we arrived home. I used to bark – randomly – to keep her awake. My poor startled baby. LOL!
I will give our daughter a snack. She’s not going to sleep if she’s munching on cereal!
Getting the other kids to help is key. I need to focus on the road and looking in the rear view mirror or reaching out to poke at my toddler is NOT good for my driving. I hate the short naps as much as anybody but it would be better to have a cranky toddler later in the day than a hurt family because I wasn’t focused. I have seen a ton of mini-vans with drivers that are reaching around (or otherwise focused on kids) to their kids and clearly not paying attention to their driving.
I don’t want to sound like a jerk here and this is not in response to the other comments ( I haven’t even read them all). I only want to point out a serious safety concern.
Thanks for pointing that out, Krystal. It’s something we all need to remember. For my part, I let someone else do the poking. 😉
My four year old will do the same thing. A ten minute nap will turn into no nap for me later. I agree that a DVD, which he rarely get to watch in the car, will keep him up for a long time. I will also give him my iphone to play a game. When he was smaller it was songs and engaging him in conversation constantly.
I need some help! What car seats do you reccomend? I’m registered on MyRegistry for my baby…and I’m yet to decide which car seat I want. I heard good reviews about the Britax Chaperone Car Seat…but wanted to hear some outside suggestions. Thanks!
Great tips! My sister is always struggling with this with her kids. When I drive them, sometimes I am tempted to just let them sleep. 😉 If I am being a good sister, though, I blast some tunes they know and we all sing along.
I keep upbeat bible songs that they know by heart and can’t resist singing. And I too lie to my children…We also look for monkeys & pink elephants (started by my mom when we were little looking for a pink elephants that hide in the mountains on the way to SLC) 🙂
I am huge on the no napping in the car because even 2 minutes of sleep will keep my kids from napping at the normal time. We sing, open windows and shout out funny sounds to keep them awake. I am the crazy mom in the car making faces and funny sounds so that I can get my 2 hours of quiet time when we get home. So worth the weird looks!