Getting a Toddler to Nap in a Car Seat Without Driving in Circles

Plenty of toddlers fall asleep in the car within ten minutes and then refuse every other nap. You can use that without spending an hour driving around the block.

Time it to the window. Most toddlers between one and two years old are ready to sleep about five hours after waking in the morning. Start the drive ten minutes before that, not when they're already overtired.

Make the car boring. Same quiet playlist or white noise every time, a sunshade on the window, no snacks in the last five minutes. The routine does the work.

Once they're asleep, park somewhere shaded and safe and stay with them. Car seat naps should always be supervised, and never with the engine running in a closed garage.

If you want to move the nap into a cot, keep the transfer short: unbuckle slowly, keep the sound going on your phone, and lay them down feet first. Some toddlers transfer, some never do. If yours wakes every time, the car nap is still better than no nap.

Over a few weeks many toddlers start falling asleep at home in the same window, because the timing was the problem all along.