Can't Get Boys to Go to Sleep in Their Room Without Hours of Goofing Around

I have an only child so I haven't experienced this from the mom point of view. However, my little sister and I shared a room until we were preteens. We are 3 years apart, and we both remember the days of playing together after lights out as some of the most fun we ever had. This was our plotting time, our decompressing time from the long day, and a bonding experience away from TV and our parents. Our parents just made our bedtime a little earlier b/c I really think we needed that time together to goof off and wind down. We are now insanely close sisters. For my own son, I know he needs to run around and play for awhile in his room before going to sleep, and once he finally gets tired enough to go to bed, he climbs in by himself and crashes for the whole night.

Since they are still very young- you still have a fighting chance :) Ever see supernanny? I used that with my boys and it worked. Get a routine for bed- pjs., brush teeth then read a book. Then hugs and kisses and bedtime. The first time they leave the bed you tell them its bed time and put them back to bed. After that you don't say anything you just pick them up and put them back to bed. No talking no yelling. I would sit on the floor until they fell asleep with my back to them so they knew I wasn't their to talk. It took a few nights but it actually worked. Now they both go to bed really well. I also use that technique for timeouts. My older one would sit in timeout at 12 mos. my younger took 21/2 hours to get him to sit for 2 mins. Now he sits in timeout.

Tracy, A couple things. I have boys who are 15 months apart so the same thing happened to us. Although they are in college now lol. Anyway what we had to do was put the lights on a pull chain at the fixture so they couldn't turn on the lights. put toys in the closet with a hook and eye so they couldn't get that open either. then we put them to bed and let them goof around. But we started getting them up earlier in the morning and having shorter naps. maybe move the bedtime a little later so they are tired. My brother couldn't understand why his daughter wouldn't got ot sleep for about 2 hours after they put her to bed. only to find she slept till nine am had a 3 hour nap and they were putting her to bed at 7. she was wide awake lol. maybe take them for tiring walks before bed and bath then a story then lights out. period. it takes a bit but they will be closer as brothers sharing a room
S.

My boys are now 5.5 and 4.5. We moved them into a room together about a year and a half ago when it was just a few months away from the new baby coming, so they had just turned 3 and 4 (12 months apart). To this day we still have issues with them at bedtime. At first we tried the yelling and bribing and consequences but nothing phased them either. We've learned to just let them be and eventually (usually within an hour) they will go to sleep. They've gotten so used to sleeping in the same room together that they will not sleep apart from each other anymore. They've really become very good friends on top of being brothers. They are much better these days about settling down, but they still have their days...