What bedtime for nap days?

[TheSurgeonsMate]

3.5 year old sleeps pretty well. She goes to bed around 7.30ish and sleeps until around 7ish. Her official bedtime is "between seven and eight".

On a Wednesday, however, she has a nap. Wednesday evenings are not straightforward at all. Much resistance to bed, much claiming not to be tired, much wandering the halls looking for entertainment.

I keep resolving to put her to bed late on a Wednesday, but by about eight-ish my resolve has weakened and I'm worrying about nursery next day. Is eight thirty or even nine just dreadful?

(I know you'll ask, so I'll confirm - the nap is grandparent related. For family reasons, the solution is not to cut the nap.)

How long is the nap? Can it be cut down rather than cut out completely?

ds is 3.6 and sometimes gets so tired (rubbish sleeper at night, long story) he'll fall asleep in the car or sometimes the sofa.

I HAVE to limit these naps to at the most half an hour depending on what time he fell asleep otherwise he's up til 9ish.

If he is up til 9ish its not the end of the world he'll sleep til 7ish and may be a bit tired but it corrects itself over the next day or so.

It's probably an hour or more. I want to try nine-ish bedtime, but I do worry about being a bit tired the next day - it's a full nursery day and I think she needs all her resources for that.

I don't know why I'm so keen to avoid the Wednesday evening buggering about, we could just deal with it I suppose, but it seems pointless, she's not getting quality rest, we're not getting the benefit of either her company or uninterrupted time and the whole thing about coming and going from her bedroom could "leak" into other evenings where she generally just goes to bed and gets some sleep.

Cut the Wednesday nap or make it max 20 mins. 9is way too late for bed and will have knock on effect

Maybe I could do more to help her sleep instead. By which I mean get into bed with her on a Wednesday. Again, though, I don't want her to start asking for this on other evenings. Looks like no one thinks there's a solution that just lets GPs be with their nap.