How do you get your toddler to go to bed?
DS is nearly 2.5 and his refusal to go to sleep at night is having a massive effect on our whole family. He keeps on coming out of his room, time after time for up to 2 hours. We have tried cuddles, reasoning, bribery, taking toys away, shutting the door, yelling. Nothing works and he doesn't go to sleep until he is too exhausted to continue.
He gets up around 7am, doesn't have a day nap and then is supposed to go to bed at 8pm but we have been letting him stay up closer to 8.30-9pm because then there is less time spent trying to settle him.
DH has cracked it big time and wants to buy a lockable door knob and just lock him in there. I won't let this happen and it is causing big problems between DH and I.
I don't think he is over tired at all, because even a 20 minute nap means he won't go to bed before 10pm. We go for a walk for about 30 minutes nearly every night to burn off some energy.
Any suggestions for how to get him to go to sleep would be very appreciated because I don't know how much longer we can continue like this.