How do I get ds (3) to stay in his room and GO TO SLEEP!?

[redclover79]

If I go downstairs he comes out and wanders around, if I stay up here he comes up to me and shouts 'TALK TO ME!' while I patiently ignore, give no eye contact and return him to bed. It's become the latest silly game and the latest phase we are going through... grrrr, he's out again... Somebody help me please!

[cece]

Sometimes it takes an hour of putting my ds back into bed and saying goodnight only, no eye contact etc. before he stays....

[divastrop]

when my ds2 was 3 he went through a similar thing.i just relentlessly put him back in bed without talking to him or anything,over and over,till he got the message.after a few nights he gave up and returned to settling straight away.

now if he gets up,he knows dp will put him back to bed and mummy wont even speak to him,so he doesnt bother.(unless he's woken due to illness,of course,im not that nasty)

[redclover79]

I think I have made some progress as he is now sat in his bed pretending to sneeze , do I upset the applecart and get in the bath?!

[JackieNo]

How about a star chart?

[tulip27]

ha ha I know exactly what your going through. I told my son I would put him in the shed if he didn't stay in his room, seemed to work a treat but perhaps not very pc.

[Gobbledigook]

Either

Sit outside the room reading abook - don't acknowledge child at all

or

Just keep walking him back and putting him in - no eye contact and no talking to him. Just keep doing it, keep doing it. As soon as you start to say anything, that's another chunk of time they'll stay awake for.

[cylonbabe]

tie him to the bed. lock the door, and go down the pub

[Gobbledigook]

tulip - I've threatened to put mine in teh porch and even got as far as taking ds3 to the front door and opening it! Eeeeeevil mummy!!

[cylonbabe]

lots of luck.
i usually start of patiently putting them back to bed. by half nine, i m screaming like a banshee GO TO BED.

[divastrop]

ha ha no,i regularly used to scream 'get to bed NOW or you'll be sleeping in the back yard,in the rain!!!!' at my eldest 2.

strange,but the going to bed problems with those 2 vanished when they started school.i think they were too tired to bother.

[redclover79]

Well, he finally gave up at 10.45 having complained of various illnesses for teh final half hour... That's it over with for another night, just carried on with the ignoring and putting to bed, but dp went for the 'If you don't go to bed you won't get X' routine! Which doesn't work with ds1 but it's very hard to get dp to change tactics, so I suppose this will be going on for quite a while yet!
Thanks everyone, cylonbabe like your suggestion! Give it a few more days and I might just do that!!