Bedtime for 2-Year-old

My son is almost 3, and we try to make the bedtime routine nice and bonding so he gets his fill, but when we leave we say, "Would you like the door open or shut? You can have it open if you stay in your room." He usually says, "open" of course. And if he wants to play in there a little, there's not much we can do about it. We can't force him to fall asleep. BUT if he leaves the room and tries to come out (with a few exceptions like going potty) we say, "So sad. You chose to have to your door shut," and we gently lay him in his bed and shut the door. He knows that we follow through and so he rarely comes out. We have recently gotten a little lax about setting the limit and following through (because we hate to see him sad), and he works the system now. It gets so exhausting when he comes out over and over and we keep putting him back in his room and we never get alone time. So I think we'll reclaim our quiet evenings alone again for our own sanity. It's hard to never feel refreshed.

this is what works for me. I had a air mattress in his room and stayed with him to he falls asleep. HAve now moved to rocking chair because I am 7 month pregnant. Than leave and say I going the bathroom which is right outside he room. he can see the light from his crib and then in two minutes he falls alseep. He has started to ask for the door open. Tonight was first time he slept all night on his own, I did not got to him once. He cried lightly for mayber two minutes . He used to wake and scream I am scared, I want to go to mommies room, get me out of here everything that killed my strength.Bringing him to our room just made things harder

Sleep in his room for a while. listen for sounds and lights. these may be frightening him. He might be a light sleeper. My son would wake every time the air turned on and I had to darken room. He enjoyed the light of a fish tank and the bubbling sound. When the sound or light appeared I would tell him what it was and ensured him it would not hurt him. Also avoid any scarry shows, movies---I would not let my kids watch dinosaur stuff or any scifi stuff. I read once that if a child wants to watch a movie or show over and over again it is because he is scared and he watches it to get mastery over it. Hope this encourages you.

My daughter is 4, when she was two I would lay with her until she fell asleep (which would sometimes take hours!!!)...when she was 3ish we bought a little tv with a dvd player for her room...every night about 8:30 we put her in her bed say our goodnights and we put a movie on...she is usually asleep before the movie is over...sometimes playing the same movie everynight helps too, tell him its his night night movie

Have you ever seen supernanny? I really believe in the supernanny tactics (discipine and bedtime).
1.You go through the bedtime routine and put them in bed, leave the room (however you want to establish the routine)
2. The first time they get out of bed, you say, only, "It's bedtime honey, time to go to bed" put them back in bed
3. The second time they get out of bed, you say, only, "bedtime" and put them back in bed
4. the third time they get out of bed, you say NOTHING, and put them back in bed (repeat step 4 as many times as needed) - if their behavior has been previously reinforced by getting extra time with mom, getting a drink, etc, it will take some time to break it, but the important thing is consistency and not reinforcing (hence, saying only the one thing and not giving them additional attention for getting out of bed).

I have seen on the show, this process could take 2-3 hours the first night. However, it drops dramatically, usually within one night. Within a week, if you're consistent, I would bet you would see dramatic results. It might take some screaming and fits and crying (from both of you :) but I think it is well worth it to be able to establish at this age (on the show sometimes they're dealing with this at 10 or so, and it gets much more difficult the older they get.)

I am the mom of five great (well at least most days) kids. We went through this challenge with a couple of our children and the way to get rid of the problem is to begin by threatening to take away their night light (if they have one) if they don't stay in bed. If they don't have a night light, tell them you will put one in their room if they stay in bed. Then take it away if they get up. Another thing you can do is if you normally shut their door, tell them you will leave it open if they stay in bed. If none of this works, your last ditch effort (which a guarantee will solve the problem within a couple of days) should be to explain to your child that if they get out of bed you will be shutting their door. No night light either. Then if they do, you simply shut the door and hold it shut from the outside until your child either leaves the door alone or falls asleep. They may throw a fit or cry for a little bit, but after a night or two of having to have a dark, door shut room you can talk to them again and tell them they can have their door wide open if they go to bed and to sleep when you say it is bedtime. You should be back to easy bedtimes again soon!