Days out or lunch out with one nap routine?

[wishIwasonholiday10]

How to do navigate days out or even lunch out if you have a toddler with the one nap routine which seems to require an early lunch and a good nap to work well? We used to manage these things with pram naps but it seems much trickier to get DD to sleep in the pram these days and if she does it's never for long enough for her not to get grumpy and tied later on.

We like to have lunch out occasionally at the weekends since evening meals out with a toddler seem pretty much a no go and when we meet up with family or friends we prefer to go out as our flat is tiny but with nap time now falling over lunch I don't know how to manage it. Just skip lunch out for awhile or try to engineer an early nap before we go out?

My DS is 18 months and has his nap at 11, normally for 1.5-2 hours so we can do things in the afternoon. If he's sleeps past 1 he won't go to bed.

Either wake up early with toddler and do nap time earlier, or do later nap time once home and put to bed later. Will depend on how your toddler manages with a delayed nap and whether you prefer an early morning or late evening.

Brunch out together on weekend mornings, back to the house for lunchtime naps

Mine naps at midday for 1.5 hours. We would usually eat out in the mid -late afternoon if going with him. It's easier than trying to engineer around the nap.

The odd day here and there I wouldn’t worry- they nod off when they nod off. If you go for lunch at 12- they’ll nod off on the way home.

Either work with your nap timings, so late/early lunch for you (feed toddler at his normal time) or just accept that some days will be bad nap days and he’ll sleep briefly in the car on way home.

Doesn’t really make for particularly enjoyable lunches though if your toddler is overtired!

I really missed the peace of nap time once it stopped, but I loved having more freedom again.

Always did brunch rather than lunch for meals out so we could eat earlier then dc could nap in buggy on the way home. Mine would nap in the buggy for a good couple of hours.We have dc2 now who has always had to do buggy/carrier naps, being tied to the house isn't an option when you have an older sibling.

Either accept a grumpy toddler or the fact that long lunches are just not for now. It’s a phase.