As I near my fourth birthday after turning 60 next month, the one thing I like to do is take an afternoon nap while I’m sitting in my recliner.
Those days are irregular during the spring because of the hours I keep at the office, covering meetings or heading out to take pictures at sporting events arriving home as the sun sets.
The end of the school year means a couple of early arrivals to the homestead and a “siesta” — an hour power nap. Depending on my work day, those “hour power naps” sometimes will turn into maybe a twohour deep sleep.
I tend to feel more energized when I wake up. I know my grandson, River, loves to take an afternoon nap and becomes more playful — most of the time.
The other two grands outgrew nap time by the age of two. One would think they would lay down and fall asleep watching whatever they watch on TV. That has happened in years.
I just don’t understand why kids put up such a fuss about naptime. Naps are awesome!
Our grandchildren don’t exactly realize naptime is often the only part of the day when Sandy can actually get anything done while she works at the house. It would be a break from being hounded for more chocolate milk or something to eat every 7.5 minutes.
Those 2-3 hours of quiet time would give her the sanctuary she needs.
I know the grandchildren are growing to the age where they are starting to conspire get a quorum to bounce bad behaviors off one another for maximum effect.
It’s never a good sign when you walk into the living room and not only are the kids all huddled around a circle in the corner, but they’ve hastily thrown a blanket over whatever is between them and they’re looking up at you doing their best to restrain the biggest fit of the giggles that they’ve ever faced.
The best case scenario is that they stole a full box of cookies or fruit snacks from the pantry and they’ll be bouncing off the walls for the next two hours.
Less comforting is they were in the middle of sacrificing something to Apophis, the God of Chaos, and your unexpected interruption caused them to open up a portal through which all sorts of noisy and obnoxious toys and creatures will pour into the sacred grounds of the floor or middle of the doorway to be stepped on.
If only they’d taken their naps! All we can really hope is that one day when they’re much, much older, and they’ve become parents themselves with crazy children of their own who are in desperate need of a daily settling down, they stick to their guns and enforce the naptime ritual for as long as they can hold out.
And while the kids are asleep, they use that time to grab a quick catnap for themselves – just as we once did whenever the opportunity presented itself for the taking.
• Rick Head is the Publisher and Editor of The Brantley Beacon and the Waycross Journal-Herald. He can be reached at [email protected]
