is my ds too young for playgroups?

[frekkles]

I keep wanting to take my ds to a toddler/baby playgroup, he's 13 months and crawling like a loon and almost walking. He doesn't go to nursery, so I thought he might enjoy seeing other kids.

But all the playgroups I've seen are all on 10 - noon ish. This is when my ds naps, without fail every morning. I've tried to take him, hoping he'll stay awake for an hour longer, but he either falls asleep in the pram on the way or is so tired by the time we get there that he's grumpy and doesn't want to play anyway.

Is this because he's too young for playgroups? I find it bizarre that all the groups are on at the time , as to my knowledge most babies nap around this time in the morning. Will he start napping later soon, and that's an appropriate age to start taking him? What do others do?

Good question! DS has always been a terrible sleeper, day and night, so I've been led by him.

DS has always seemed to space his naps according to the time since he woke up, so if he wakes for the day earlier, he naps earlier.

What happened was that the gaps between his naps gradually got longer, particularly the gap between his morning and afternoon naps. So eventually there wasn't time to fit in an afternoon nap before it got too late (we don't let him sleep after 4.30pm, because it disrupts his night sleep - even more than usual).

HTH.

Plus, you might find it reassuring to google free range parenting, which seems to be suggesting that we should avoid scheduling our dcs very much.

Most of them are 10-12 because the morning nap is the one that most children drop first - so you get more children in the morning. And there isn't enough time in the afternoon to fit in a nap, toddler group and then pick up older kids from school.

(I run a toddler group - had never occurred to me to have it in the afternoon, cos I didn't think anyone would come!)

Just wanted to say that my ds (almost 20 months) has his nap in the morning still. He never naps in the afternoon. I find this is a positive though as it means we never have a problem getting him to go to bed at bedtime (usually about 7.30). However he does wake up between 5.30-6.30am so must need his sleep in the morning!

I usually arrange activities that start about 9-9.30 (and then he sleeps after) or in an afternoon, after his nap and lunch.

EvianBaby - sounds like we have ds's from similar sleep moulds. We are pathetically happy on the days that start after 6am .

Thanks ladies. I actually found a group that was on this afternoon from 1-3pm, but then lunch took ages with two babies, and then potty and nappies afterwards and by the time we got out it was 130 and it was so sunny we went to the park instead. The park has a cafe with tables on the grass and tonnes of toys and a swing park, slide and climbing frame next door. The boys went crawling and cruising mad, chasing each other, stealing other toddlers toys, Stealing my cake, stroking dogs, eating mud, trying to climb up the slide while older girls were trying to come down it, playing crawl ball with two other little boys and generally making muddy nuisances of themselves. While I sat and drank tea and ate cake in the sunshine! I even had a nice chat with a few other mothers. This is surely as good if not better than toddler group us it nit