opinions on waking toddler from naps?

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

DS is 3.2 and still has his regular middle of the day nap (thank god, with newborn DD to contend with now!)

Trouble is on nursery days he often doesn't go down until 1:30/2 and then on non nusrerly days (like today) will often sleep for over 2.5hours, both of which mean him getting up quite late - about 4ish.

My head says this is too late and he won't go to bed, so I often wake him at 3 or 3:30 but whenever we wake him from a nap (as opposed to him waking up himself) he is in such a horrid mood for the rest of the afternoon I don't feel like it's worth it. If we let him sleep, sometimes he'll be awake til 9pm (albeit in his bed, we still put him to bed at 7:30 as normal, he never leaves his bed though might call for us or sing and chat to himself for hours)....so basically you know the mantra "never wake a sleeping baby" is it ok to use the same for my toddler, or is it going to really ruin his sleep patterns if I don't wake him and let him sleep late in the afternoon?

I have exactly the sae problem with my DD1 (albeit that she is only 2). Today she only went down very late for a nap because we were at her friend s party, and I woke her at 330. Since then she has been foul, andha swanted to watch TV all afetrnoon because she is too wrecked to do anything else. Yesterday I didnt wake her and a sa result she went into her cot at 7pm and stopped chatting just before 9pm = v tired this morning.
Generally I think best not to wake them, although I will wake her if she has had over 2.5 hour nap as she isnt too ratty then.

With a long daytime nap he won't need to go to bed so early. My dd2 (2.10) sleeps 8.30pm to 7am and has 1 1/2hr bap 1-2.30ish. If she sleeps later than 1.30 she won't sleep until after 9.

How much sleep does he have in 24 hrs? If you want to keep on with his nap you may need to compromise on a later bed time.

hmmmm, the prob doesn't seem to be how long his nap is, just how late it is. sometimes he will still go down at 7:30 but more than not he won't....he actually is rarely asleep before 8pm but is quite content to stay in his bed reading and chatting to himself from 7:30pm

so i guess an average 24 hours he'll do 10-11 hours at night then nap for 2 hours.

is it a sign I should just drop the nap? I'm pretty sure he still needs it, and he normally wakes between 6:30-7am regardless what time he goes to bed, unless it's a very late night, then he wakes really early (go figure) which sometimes happens when he wakes 4pm or later from his nap

My rule is always up by 3pm. Regardless of what time they go down, if grumpy offer a snack and some quiet dvd/cbeebies time or get out and about for a walk.