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I think kids need to nap until a minimum of 5 years old. That said, I'm not as extreme and wouldn't make a kid leave a fun birthday party.

My 3 year old still naps but we don't let it rule our life! He can skip it for birthday parties or other special events!

DS1 is 3 and naps from 1-4pm at home. (That said, he has a harder time napping at school with all the distractions so he may be making up for it on the weekends). We have always stuck to a pretty religious nap schedule for both our kids and we will keep with it until they are in kinder or it affects their bedtime/overnight sleep. They just don't act and feel their best if they don't get enough rest. I know some kids who drop their naps completely by 3 and some kids who nap religiously until they are forced to quit because of school. I think it all depends on their kid.

I nannied for a girl that took a daily nap until the day before she started kindergarten, she was a little over 5. Her nap from 3-5 years old was about 1.5 hours but she also slept 8pm-6:30am, she just had really high sleep needs.

DD has always responded really want well to scheduled naps and has slightly high sleep needs. I see nothing wrong with napping regularly up to school age. She's only 2.5 now though so who knows.

I think kids, just like adults, can all have different sleep needs. My DH needs a lot more sleep than I do to feel well rested. He would take a nap most days if he could.

@Purpledaisy: I will add that in case of your family member, that seems like a very late bedtime. If my DD was going to bed at 10pm, we would be thinking twice about her naps.
She generally naps 1:30-3:30 and is in bed at 8 and asleep by 8:30. Once school starts and naps are cut out, I will be putting her to bed at 7/7:30. I can't imagine having my kids up until 10pm! Especially since I'm usually in bed by 9:30

My niece is almost 6 and she isn't taking daily naps. But anytime we are at the grandparents' house, she takes a long nap so I bet she would still take one every day if given the chance. I always feel bad for her. Like, let her sleep!

My older one just turned 4 and I would say most of her friends don't nap most days, but many still have some kind of quiet time in the afternoons (probably related to the fact that they have younger siblings who do nap). I just dropped the quiet time because she was fighting it like crazy and on the rare times she did nap, bedtime was terrible. So 4.5 seems late but not insane. But yeah, if she was only sleeping 10-6 I'd have a problem with that!

ETA: i would have a problem with that sleep schedule because I need some alone time and time with DH in the evenings. Not because of the amount of sleep overall.

I definitely know 4yo who nap but not sure of 5yo (they may I just don't know their schedules). I know my ped says at a minimum quiet time in a darkened room is needed till 5, ideally still a nap.

My nephew is 7.5 and he could still nap every day. He doesn't because of school, obviously. But he'll often fall asleep in the afternoon on weekends or even after school. Sometimes he'll come home from school and just crawl into bed.

I also think a change in night time sleep is an indicator that he prob doesn't need the nap, he just needs an earlier bedtime. So skip the nap and do a 7pm bedtime instead. My son is high sleep needs and I'm sure he'll be a later napper. He's 3 next week and naps 1:30-3:30/4 and overnight 8-7/7:30. If his nightsleep changed I would drop or shorten his nap for sure. Like a 10pm bedtime wouldn't fly here. I wanna keep it at 8pm max as long as humanly possible for multiple reasons.

LO napped (not daily, but multiple times a week) until 5, for sure. It probably did give him a later bedtime, but we were fine with that. It gave us more flexibility for doing things in the evening and at night (examples: astronomy events/campfire/movie night/dinner out). I figured that there aren't that many things that I want to do with him that start at 6am, but there are things we want to do that start at 7pm, and his later bedtime made them possible without hiring a babysitter. I wouldn't have left an event he was enjoying just for a nap after age 4 unless he seemed really tired and likely to start having massive behavior problems.

In this case, I'd assume that their schedule works for this family/child. That's all that matters.

My oldest is the same age and on a similar schedule. We are not as rigid with naptime at this point, but forcing a child to drop a nap isn't always as easy as it seems. I wish dd1 wouldn't nap, and we do our best to keep her up so she will go to sleep at an appropriate time, but when she's tired, she will fall asleep anywhere at anytime. She will literally just drop, and it doesn't matter if she sleeps 10 minutes or 2 hours - she will be up until 10pm. Because of that, I will let her sleep for at least a little to let her catch up on her hours. I also think that once they're on a napping schedule, it can be hard to break because she sleeps late, wakes up at the same time regardless of when she goes down (around 730am), is tired because she slept late, needs a nap, and the cycle continues. It's nice as our nights are more flexible, but I look forward to the day when she stops napping finally (or is old enough that I don't care anymore!)!

My guess would be 5 yrs old. Growing up Kindergarten had nap time and we were a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds.

My oldest gave up his nap shortly after turning 4 but it doesn't always mean he goes to bed easily! As in it's almost 9 and he is still calling for us. Ugh! I say it's their kid and they know him or her best so I wouldn't judge!

I'm 38 and I would totally take a daily nap if I could, does that count? B is 3.5 and doesn't nap at home but still does at daycare. Once he moves to the kindergarten room when he turns 4 they don't nap anymore.

My sisters kids all napped until 4 or later. They would go to bed at like 9 though. My oldest stopped napping completely before 3. My second is 2.8 and only will nap at school since we ditched his pacifier. I know he needs one every day but he just won't do it.

Sometime before Kinder. My 4.5 year old still naps from time to time (enforced quiet time in her room) but she can easily go without. We do cut it short though because long naps would lead to a 10 pm bedtime. Which is no bueno.

Dd is 3.5 and naps at daycare but I've dropped it at home bc I got sick of fighting her for it. She probably still needs it but at home she'll fight or for an hour or more but then fall asleep and nap for 2-3 hours!!! Making her wake up way too close to bedtime. So I just gave napping up

I think if you have a kid in full day kindergarten, the schedule kind of prohibits the nap.

Other than that, I don't think naps are a big deal. I would take one every day if I could. I go to bed super early because I wake up early, but if I could take an afternoon nap and go to bed later, I would love that!

My oldest is 4.5 and still naps for 2 hours at daycare (he doesn't usually nap at home). Some kids have higher sleep needs than others.

Also, my guess is these parents are fine with this schedule (nap during the day and then later bedtime). They are making a priority to stick with this schedule, so it's probably working for their family. It sucks that it makes it hard to plan events with them, but it works for their family unit and it won't be for forever.

Mine is like 3 months from 3, she is super borderline. In the first half of the year, 2-2.5, she def needed a solid nap. Around 2.5, if we skipped it for some reason, she is fine but is cranky in the evening. Now, on no nap days she isn't too crabby and just goes to sleep early. We have to cap her nap b/c a long/late nap always affects her night sleep. Note: she has low sleep needs since baby-hood.