A daycare instructor’s controversial rant about nap time has sparked a heated debate online.
Kimmy Middleton, from Georgia, recently took to TikTok to share her take on parents who tell her they want their child to skip their nap so that they can go to bed earlier at night.
She explained that the children get exhausted midday due to the immense activities they do during daycare.
She then encouraged moms and dads to spend more ‘quality time’ with their kids when they get home in the evening, rather than putting them right to sleep – but her comments completely divided the web.
During the now-viral video, which was viewed more than 280,000 times, Kimmy acted out a mock conversation between her and a mother.
‘Hey Ms. Kimmy, I’m gonna ask that you not put Crystal down for a nap anymore. I see that in her nighttime routine she doesn’t really go down when I try to put her to sleep around 8 o’clock at night,’ she said, while pretending to be the mom.
‘So I just ask that you not put her down for a nap so she’s actually tired when she gets home with me.’
Kimmy then explained that the state requires daycares ‘to have a rest time’ for all children.
Georgia-based daycare instructor Kimmy Middleton’s controversial rant about nap time has sparked a heated debate online
She took to TikTok to share her take on parents who tell her they want their child to skip their nap so that they can go to bed earlier at night (stock image)
‘I’m not gonna force a toddler to stay awake when they’re actually tired from all the activities during the day,’ she added.
Instead, she recommended that the mom ‘change their nighttime routine’ – before she went on to bash parents who ‘spend no time doing activities with their children.’
‘I feel like if daycare closes at 5:30 and that’s when you pick up your child, by the time you go and grab dinner or get home and make dinner, it’s about 6:30, maybe 7 o’clock,’ she continued.
‘The child eats dinner, you give the child a bath, maybe you read them a book and you put them to bed.
‘You’re not spending any time with your child. I get you’re tired too, you spent time at work all day long but spending absolutely no time doing activities with your child and then putting them down for bed at 8 o’clock doesn’t really give your child any quality time with you.’
Immediately, Kimmy’s video was met with a fierce reaction from viewers, who rushed to the comment section to share their thoughts.
And while some completely agreed with her, many slammed her being ‘judgemental.’
‘Explaining the law is fine, the judgment isn’t,’ one person scathed.
She encouraged moms and dads to spend more ‘quality time’ with their kids when they get home in the evening, rather than putting them right to sleep
‘This! I would switch providers so quick for trying to tell me how I should spend quality time with MY child after I worked all day,’ someone else agreed. ‘Dinner, bath, bedtime routine IS quality time, esp during the week.’
‘Toddlers need 10 hours of sleep. 8pm is absolutely the correct time to put your child to sleep if you have early mornings,’ another user added.
‘Look I don’t have kids but the judgement with not spending enough time with them was unwarranted,’ a fourth comment read.
‘My parents picked me up from daycare at 6 when I was little because they both worked.’
‘Um. My son goes to bed at 6:30 because he will sleep 12+ hours. He’s a year old. It doesn’t mean we don’t want to spend time with him, it means he’s getting the sleep essential to his growth,’ a fifth said.
Others, however, rushed to Kimmy’s defense.
‘I agree. some parents don’t want to parent,’ one person chimed it.
‘PLEASE SAY IT LOUDER FOR THOSE IN THE BACK!’ added another.
Immediately, Kimmy’s video was met with a fierce reaction from viewers, who rushed to the comment section to share their thoughts
‘I had parents tell me they put them down at 6:30-7pm… Like don’t you like your child?’ asked someone else.
‘As an Early Childhood Educator I 100 percent AGREE,’ wrote a different user.
Kimmy, who runs the daycare service A Giving Tree Daycare from her home, also spoke about the topic to the Today show.
‘Naps help to develop children’s brains … and restore energy so when kids wake up, they can participate in activities,’ she explained. ‘Playing is how they learn.
‘I’m not necessarily telling parents how to raise their children, but in my daycare, this is what we do.
‘I wish parents understood that teachers are doing their best. A child’s nap time is also our time for a break – not that I’m sitting.
‘Most of the time, I’m cleaning or disinfecting, eating, using the bathroom or answering parent emails.’
Georgia law states that ‘supervised nap or rest periods during the day shall be provided for children under five years of age.
‘Children who do not sleep during nap or rest periods shall not be required to remain lying down for more than one hour.
‘Quiet activities for school-age children and other children who are not asleep shall be provided.’
