Parenting: 2-Year-Olds Community

Well actually I watch a lot of Nanny 911 and this woman on there had the same issue as you. I have a daughter who will be 2 in march and I havent started working on getting her into a big bed yet but maybe this will help.. Basically on the show this woman could not for the life of her get her child to stay in the big bed. He would get up, run around, do everything but sleep in his big boy bed. The Nanny basically told her it was all about consistency and not getting into a "battle of wills" of something along those lines. Basically, dont argue, just calmly state its time to go to bed in the big boy bed. If he gets out of it, put him back in it.. and continuously do it even if you have to do it all night long. Because if you give in, or your child thinks you are going to give in, if he keeps getting out enough then you will never succeed. The lady on the show basically had to keep doing this for 2 or 3 nights, not much sleep but finally it sunk in and the child got the hang of it. Make sure you just keep that before bed routine also.. My routine (even though we arent working on big bed yet) is dinner time, bath time, snuggle time, and in bed at 8:30. And I never have any issues getting her to lay down. I just make bath time really fun and snuggle time really fun. And now its like right when its about supper time she gets super excited and looks forward to that routine, even night night time.. Hope all of this helps and good luck!!

Maybe you could get some new toys or something for him in his bed?

We transitioned DS around...geez 18 mos I wanna say because he's so tall he could climb out of his crib, but I took his crib toy and mounted it on his big bed and got him some new cars (he doesnt like stuffed animals or anything). Just recently he went through a phase of screaming everytime we put him in bed (and then I remembered my daughter went through the same phase!), and I bought him a lava lamp.....just enough light in his room and something to look at while he is in bed.