What to do when Rapid Return is seen as a game?

[TheWorstWitch]

DD is 2 years and 2 and a bit months. In a bed which she keeps getting out of. We keep returning her but she just thinks it's funny, she's now started coming out of her room and the moment we go in to return her to bed, she lies flat on the carpet looking forward to being picked up and putting back in bed ... for it all to happen again.

Am I doing something wrong?

do you talk to her ? or ignore her ?

Can't offer a huge amount of help = we only had to do one night. But mainly DS was getting out because he wanted me, so when I threatened him with DP he soon got the message !

I totally sympathise as DS1 also did this.

He was about 2.4 at the time, so a similar age, but also DS2 had just arrived which I think made it worse.

He found it hilarious and would run out of his room giggling his head off and as soon as he saw me, run straight back in and throw himself on the bed...over and over and over again. One night I was there for an hour and 40 minutes from about 4am before he gave up

Anyway, after that night, I accepted it wasn't going to work so I did what I was doing in the evenings at bedtime - put him to bed, and then go downstairs and shut the stairgate behind me so he couldn't follow me. (DH was in our bedroom with DS2 but he clearly didn't want him) I ended up MNing for a while until he gave up and went to bed and we have never had a problem since.

Hth

Puffylovett - I talk to her the first time she does it (tell her it;s sleep time) and then the rest of times I make no eye contact and don't talk to her. I'm also very calm when I do it.

Ceebee74 - Did your DS cry when you shut the stairgate? And if so, how long did he cry for?
We don;t have a stairgate and DD can open the door to her room when closed tight.

Still not sure what to do.
need to come up with a strategy for tonight when I'm determined to be firm and get her to sleep before 10pm!

Worstwitch he cried for about 5 minutes (if that) and then put himself back to bed - but I had used the same technique of letting him cry at the stairgate a few weeks earlier when he was messing about at bedtimes so he had already gone through the longer crying (I think it was 10 minutes at the most) and I guess he knew he wasn't going to get anywhere iyswim.

I don't know what I would do without the stairgate as he would be impossible to put to bed in the evenings!!!

ds1 did this.
i couldnt manage any more and put a stairgate on his bedroom door.
for about 2 weeks he ended up falling asleep on the floor by the stairgate and i'd put him in bed asleep and after that he gave in and stayed in bed
no stairgate any more and tbh he still gets up a few times some nights at nearly 4...

am DEFINITELY keeping ds2 in the cot as long as i can....

Thanks for all this information, will use stairgate if I get desperate.

After all my anxieties, DD just fell asleep tonight without getting out of bed ONCE!!

I did tell her what was going to happen - that I would not stay in her room with her and that she was not to keep getting up. It was very clear that I was very determined to put an end to it ... so may be it was that, or may be she was just sooooo knackered from only having had 9 hours sleep in total last night she didn't want to play