toddler won't stay in bed and is driving his brother mad

[meysey]

my school age son is a good sleeper and is being driven mad by his younger brother (2.5) who keeps him awake by getting out of bed countless times after being put to bed. if I keep the door shut DS 2 gets totally hysterical and DS1 comes down to complain.

how can I get DS2 to stay put, without giving DS1 too many sleepless nights? he has a good routine (bath, story, song etc). he is growing out of afternoon naps but sometimes just crashes out in the afternoon as he can't last through, which I think must be contributing to the problem. but it's impossible to make him stay awake if he doesn't want to.

we are of course being driven mad too!

My friend has this problem with her dd (who shares a room with her brother). They put the school aged child to bed first and then take the little one into their room until she has the message that it is bed time and she will stay in bed. Then they read her a story and put her to bed, 9 times out of 10 it works. BTW they dont take the little one up until the big one is asleep.

Cant you make sure little one is in bed asleep before older one goes to bed? I would space bedtimes out.
Just keep going up and putting younger child back in bed until they get the msg?

Letting little one stay up over the older one is the wrong message imo.