Help advice needed - 2 year old boy who won't go to bed

[lssb]

My DS2 has just turned 2 and we moved him out of his cot into a bed as he'd learnt how to climb out very easily. It now takes us 20 mins to 1.5 hours to get him to stay in bed and go to sleep. He's always been good at putting himself to sleep at 7pm but now thinks its funny to get straight out of bed / wake up his brother / turn lights on and off etc. We're doing the rapid return to bed with no talking to him when he gets out but it doesn't seem to get any better. I have always relied on the 7 - 7.30pm bedtime being my time off but now its all gone wrong. This has been going on for about 5 weeks now. Any advice please.

bump as my DS is doing the same

welcome to my world -- DD (aged 2) wakes up DS (10 months)

Is he in the same room as his brother? If not then first make it more interesting to stay in bed - maybe a low light and a book or two to look at, or listening to a story or music tape. Would his brother sleep through a story tape being on very quietly? If they are in together then if you can shield the other DS somehow (e.g. chair with a towel over the back) you could trust DS2 with a torch to make shadows on the ceiling. Once it's established that he stays in bed you can then work on the getting to sleep earlier bit.

My MIL, however, was a very crafty lady much in favour of calling children's bluff - I'm not sure it would work in your situation as DS2 is too young but her tactic in this situation with a visiting child was to say cheerfuly "Oh you don't want to go to bed then, that's OK." and then make him stay up for one or more nights until he drops with exhaustion or begs to go to bed (at which point you say "Oh you can't be tired yet, let's do X"). She used this tactic with success more than once - but I suspect you have to be as stubborn as she was to make it work!

does he still nap in the afternoon? any chance that he may not need it any more? we struggled with putting ds down at night until he was 2.4, and when someone suggested dropping the nap it was like an epiphany. we thought we'd miss the afternoon break, but it was well worth giving up that time to have peaceful bedtime restored again.

They don't share a bedroom and fortunately DS1 is a heavy sleeper and goes to sleep really quickly. It doesn't make a difference if he has a daytime nap or not. Might try the story tape though as I remember as a child going to sleep to stories on tapes. Thanks for the advice.