Tell me your 2+ year olds routine

[ParentalGuidances]

Hi

I have a 2.5 year old and recently have been feeling like I’m getting it all wrong. She’s very clingy, cranky, whiney and overbearing.

She goes to bed around 9pm and is up at 9am. Doesn’t start nursery until the afternoon so there is no real need to be up too early. On the weekends she naps but nursery days she doesn’t as by the time she gets home at 4pm and takes a nap, she’d then struggle to sleep at night.

Is this where I’m going wrong? Should I put her down for a nap even for an hour after nursery so she can rest up rather than annoying me because perhaps she’s overtired?

Please tell me what your day is like and if you have any tips which have made life easier. I’m really struggling to enjoy her if im honest. I don’t want to feel this way hence the thread.

Thanks

Please don’t let this thread get buried, I really need to know 😂

I think 9pm is quite late, but if you want the lie in in morning the trade off is the evenings I suppose! DD would be pretty exhausted staying up till 9pm on a nursery day, can't she just go to bed earlier on those days? We don't have a strict bedtime as such - tonight she was in bed at 8 but a nursery day she might be asleep before it's even 7 if she's tired.

She hasn't napped since just before she turned 2 though!

The thing is if she goes to bed earlier on a nursery night then she’ll get up earlier the following day so when it’s time to head to nursery that afternoon she’ll probably be napping at home instead. I’m struggling to find a middle ground. I do think she needs a nap though, she’s young to drop her naps isn’t she?

When did everyone’s toddlers drop their naps?

My second child is 3 in July 4th. Our routine is like yours 9pm till 8am or so. Has an hour or 2 nap anywhere between 12 till 5 or even 6 depending on his physical activity, if he's been poorly or maybe even developmental leap. I work 2 days a week so for now it suits us. He's starting nursery 2 days a week in March xxx

Hello :)
My two year old dropped her nap at 2.5 years. She didn't instantly drop them, she just started taking them every other day, rather than everyday and then eventually stopped altogether. Bedtimes were just becoming to difficult and she was waking early in the mornings too. She now goes to bed between 7pm and 8:15pm depending on how tired she seems. She will always wake up anytime between 7am and 8am. She does get overtired if she has been at nursery (the tiredness usually hits the day after) so sometimes she might still have a 20 minute power nap in the car in this instance. All kids have different sleep needs.
It could maybe that she's in the
'terrible 2s' with regards to the whining etc. I know my little girl went through a stage of this and i think it was because she was changing so much, lots of feelings and unable to express them properly etc.
Everything is a phase, hope things pick up soon.
Your doing great x

My 2.5 year old doesn't nap at nursery (3 full days per week) and she sleeps 7pm-7am approx on those days.

Non nursery days look like this:
7am wake up (we don't let her sleep much beyond that)
1-1:30pm nap in buggy (won't nap in bed and doesn't always nap in buggy but we always try)
7:30pm bedtime

We don't let her nap beyond 1:30pm or for longer than 30 mins because it pushes bedtime too much

Thanks for the replies. I do think there is a lot of changes as she only started nursery a few months ago. Also you’re right - she isn’t able to express herself so constantly whinges and cries and points to things rather than try and communicate to me what it is she wants in a calmer manner. It’s frustrating for me and probably for her as well.

Then there’s other things like each time I leave the room she comes and follows, if I go to the bathroom she bangs the door down or stands outside calling me, I can’t really separate myself from the constant whinging and it’s driving me mad. I’m not enjoying parenting her and dread the day ahead when I wake up sometimes.

Any other tips on how to make my days a bit brighter?

DS dropped naps just after he turned two, if he napped he wouldn't go to bed until after 9pm and would have disturbed sleep. He now goes to bed 7/7:30 and sleeps until 7/7:30am. If she's not ready to drop the afternoon nap will she have one at nursery or can you switch her to mornings?

I’ve requested a switch already, I’ve also encouraged nursery naps but so far she hasn’t slept in nursery.

DS is noticeably whinier/irrational when he's tired

That’s what it is, it’s the fact that nursery has tired her out and when she gets home she won’t stop, she keeps going and going. Only way she calms down is if she takes a nap but due to the time she gets home it’s so unsuitable.

Ds is 2.5 and dropped his nap at around 14 months. He goes to bed at 7-7.30pm and wakes at 6.30am-7.30am. He may go to bed earlier if tired and he has been at nursery. He has quiet time, sits on the sofa and watches Stickman or something like that for 30 minutes just after lunch. His day when not at nursery looks like this:
6.30-7.30am wakes, plays
7.30-8am breakfast, dressed for the day
8.30am walk or scoot siblings to school
9.15am home
10am we either play( trains, paint, tuff tray, playdoh) at home or go out to rhyme time, gym tots, park, some sort of activity.
12pm lunch
12.30-1pm quiet time
1-2.30pm do something at home, group, park or dog walk
2.30-3.30pm walk or scoot the school run
3.30pm snack, plays with siblings, park whilst waiting for clubs
5-6pm dinner
6pm tv, bath or shower
7-7.30pm milk, story and bed.

It varies in the holidays. If he naps at all he won’t go to bed before 9pm.

Thanks @EcoCustard, my daughter doesn’t really play on her own. She’ll happily have the tele on but likes to sit on my lap. It’s frustrating when I have other things to do, if I leave the room she’ll abandon the tele and come follow me around and obstruct my chores. It’s hard.

DS is 2.5. bed around 8:30 (leftover from when I used to work 'til 6 on nursery days), he's always asleep before 9. He wakes up between 6-7.

We're generally up, dresses and breakfasted before nursery/work/my mum comes to look after them (around 8).

DS still naps, is dropping to around an hour now but still can occasionally go nearly 3! Tends to be around 11, but can move closer to 10 or 1.

We get out in the morning, home for nap, lunch, bit of TV, maybe a walk, then TV/chill while dinner and chores are sorted. Dinner is around 7, (lunch is often 2ish), bath and bed.

Can you do some baby signing for her so that she can communicate what she wants? Dd is a few months younger than your dd, and having a few signs is a lifesaver - wait, more, stop, drink etc

I really don't get anything else done in the time I'm on childcare duty and she would definitely follow me from room to room and whine if I tried to do chores. In my (admittedly limited!) experience, I think maybe you're expecting a lot of a 2 year old in terms of independence.

The benefit of an earlier bedtime is that I can do my jobs in the evening when she's asleep. I understand that this wouldn't suit everyone's lifestyle, but it works for us.

If she needs to sleep after nursery maybe think about bringing bedtime forward and accept the earlier wake-up.

I’d guess that by 9 on nursery days she is overtired and not sleeping well, and that kind of rolls together so they end up being a grumpy mess!

Maybe try and get her more towards 7-7 which will give you time to do stuff in the morning and then have a short nap before nursery until she’s ready to drop the nap completely, which won’t be long.

You might also get some lunchtime naps on other days

DD is 2.5 and has just dropped her nap. She now goes to bed earlier (usually around 6:30pm, was 8:30pm) and sleeps until 7am ish.
She doesn’t get up any earlier than she did when she was napping, just goes to bed earlier.
Occasionally, if we’ve had a busy day she’ll have a nap in the afternoon and I always regret it as she’ll be up until 10!

Switch to mornings. You'll find it so much easier and her.

She'll be home in time for a nap at the right time if she wants one.

My DS dropped his at 2.5. Gradually over 2 weeks we managed to get rid of them.
I find it a lot better tbh, bedtimes are a breeze now he's out in seconds.

Bedtime 19:00-07:30

My DD also isn’t a great talker yet and constantly whinges, not sure that’s a sleep related thing, although she is definitely worse when she’s overtired. Not sure I have any tips on how to handle that but solidarity, it’s bloody hard work. We mainly just try to keep busy and out of the house.

Any other tips on how to make my days a bit brighter?

My DS couldn't talk at that age and I also found him wingy, but soon learnt that was the only way he could express himself.

What do you do on non nursery days? Before nursery?

Parks
Feed ducks
Sensory play
Painting

Occupied is the main word. Keep her busy.

Mine are two and are also incapable of leaving me alone. Its their age. So bear with it but it will get better.

If she's going down at 9 are you getting much alone time at night? I'd bring her bedtime earlier 15 minutes at a time until 7.30-8ish. Aim for her to have a short nap before / on the way to nursery as she'll be up earlier

My DS turned 2 in October and still needs a nap (although it is occasionally a battle). Non nursery days look like this:

Up at 6.30-7am
Play at home until 9.30ish
9.30 - go out to park, soft play, some sort of activity etc.
11.30 - home for lunch
12(ish)- nap, which can be anything from 30 mins - 2+ hours. It can sometimes take up to an hour to get him settled.
Afternoon - play at home
4.30/5- dinner
5-6.15 - play and cbeebies
6.15 - bath
6.45 - bed

I think she sounds like she still needs a nap. Is there any possibility of changing her nursery sessions to mornings?
At that age mine were up by 7, breakfast and get dressed at a leisurely pace so that we were ready to leave by 8:30 to walk to nursery or morning activities (at this age they had nursery for 3 days and the other 2 we went to toddler group / story time at the library / swimming etc. They had nursery from 9-12, then home for lunch followed by cuddles and CBeebies for 15-20 mins (just one episode of whatever their favourite show was at the time). Nap was around 1:30-2:30/3.
When they woke up from their nap, we had a drink and story and then either we went out for a walk / to the park / pick sibling up from school, or I set up an activity at home such as playdoh, water beads, cloud dough, board games, puzzles etc. They then had some free play time whilst I did some housework and I had their tea ready by 4:30-5. After tea, they usually had a bit of playtime with DH when he came home from work and 6:00 was bath time, stories and bed by 7 at the latest.

Thanks everyone, your responses helped a lot, I can sort of see the areas needing attention going forward.