4 year old messing about at bedtime

[Daffodilly]

DD is rubbish at going to bed. We have a consistent routine but at least half the nights she messes about repeatedly calling us back into her room with feeble reasons (needs a drink/tissue/tucking in/etc). She shares a room with her younger brother which exacerbates the problem and worse he is now copying her.

I think it is just for the attention. But I'm struggling to know what to do about it.

Any ideas?

[Chucklecheeks]

We tried bribery too, we found it works for a while but then DD lost interest and returned to her normal behaviour. The thing that worked for us was simply putting her back to bed without saying a word. We explained as we were putting her to bed the first time that unless she needed the bathroom everything else could wait till morning. If she got up we would simply put her straight back and not engage her.took about a week and most nights she goes down really well.

[Daffodilly]

Thanks Cheeky. We gave used sticker charts before and it worked for a while but we drifted off it after a while. Perhaps time to reinstate. But ideally I'd like to use stickers for other things not bedtime. I think it is hard as by 7pm I am just ready to "clock off" myself!

[cheekeymonkey]

Sorry should have read 'going to bed NICELY and not calling for us etc'

[cheekeymonkey]

Bribery for good 'going to bed and not calling for us unless important' has worked for us in the shape of a sticker or sweet.
Happens periodically as she is testing boundaries but the bribery usually gets her back on track.
Also works for staying in own bed and not waking knackered mommy until morning.
Best of British to you