Two year old sleep tyranny.

[SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean]

Our 2 year old is a tyrant. Refuses to go to sleep unless one of us is lying beside him. If he wakes in the night, he demands someone lies down again by him. He is almost 2 and no reason seems to work at the moment. Any ideas or advice to address this?

Pick your week and persevere with return to bed? So, put to bed, leave room. When they get up/ come out, you return them to bed with little interaction.

DD1 was the same so we made the decision to crack it as DD2 had arrived and we needed bedtime to be sorted.

First night I returned her to bed at least 30 times in the hour it took.
Second night, maybe 10 times.
Third night once.
Fourth night straight to bed.

She's not been perfect since but more often than not, she stays in bed and goes off to sleep on her own now.

Middle of the night has been harder to crack and mostly my DH has to deal with her as she'll go back to bed with no fuss for him but if I go to her she can get hysterical if I won't cuddle her back to sleep.

Thanks EMS23. girds loins