Stay in bed!!!!!!

[DrFaroohk]

Every night, it's the same old story with stepkid.

"....and they all lived happily ever after. The End. Ok, goodnight Jeffrey. And remember, stay in your room please."

"Ok goodnight."

"Ok so you know you can't come out agian right?"

"Yep."

"Except for....?"

"To poop and pee."

"And...?"

"A fire."

"Good. Ok buddy, sweet dreams."

Five minutes later....

Creeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaak........SLAM.....STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP (right past the baby's room) STOMP STOMP STOMP.

"HEY I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING! I WANTED TO TELL YOU THAT TODAY I BEAT MY SPONGEBOB GAME!"

<sigh>

"Is there a fire?"

"Ummm....no, but TODAY I BEAT MY -"

"Are you pooping or peeing? I don't see a toilet out here in the living room."

"LISTEN I JUST GOTTA TELL YOU -"

"If there's no fire and no pooping or peeing you need to be IN YOUR ROOM JEFFREY. If you come out agian you lose privilege X."

<Commence another fifteen minutes of arguing>

This repeats until he's lost privileges X, Y and Z, and now I have nothing else to threaten him with, so it just escalates. There are nights he's up until 11 or 12 o clock.

I'm sure someone is thinking "Well if you just let him finish what he's gonna say he'll leave you alone." No. It just encourages it. It tells him that even though I said he can't come out, I'll let him come out anyway and tell me something randomly useless and a hundred other things I don't care about.

The only way I know of to keep him in his room is to lock him in but for some bullshit reason that's illegal. I think he's safer in there than wandering around the house in the middle of the night doing god knows what.

[Fryk]

I wouldn't encourage it, either. I would just tell him that we are NOT having this conversation outside of the room, because that's the rule. He could have called you into the room to tell you whatever he wanted to. I would have made him go back to his room and followed him in after a minute, then let him talk to me.

[Plaidman]

*pick up brat*
*Put back in bed*
*leave*

Do above if he doesn't go to bed right away.

Don't even say a word to him.

If he comes back out, repeat.

[Lachrymose]

*pick up brat*
*Put back in bed*
*leave*

Do above if he doesn't go to bed right away.

Don't even say a word to him.

If he comes back out, repeat.

Someone watches Supernanny too.

[anakhouri]

Gotta agree, don't argue. Pick him up and put him back in bed. Do it again. And again. You might do it 20 times in an hour, but after a few days he'll get it, "Oh, they won't let me get up. Might as well not bother trying."

I do this to Khan; I drag him away from the electrical outlets probably 50 times in a 2-hour span, but eventually he's like, "Mommy isn't going to let me so I'll find something else to do."

[blas87]

Duct tape him to his bed.

[Greenday]

Duct tape him to his bed.

Seems like the most logical answer so far to me. I like it.

+1 for blas!

[draggar]

*pick up brat*
*Put back in bed*
*leave*

Do above if he doesn't go to bed right away.

Don't even say a word to him.

If he comes back out, repeat.

Dog training is so much like human training.

... and no, that wasn't sarcastic.

[Boozy]

The principles are sometimes the same, but it's so much easier with dogs. They don't have the ability to think ahead very far. There's a limit to how crafty they can be.

[smileyeagle1021]

The only way I know of to keep him in his room is to lock him in but for some bullshit reason that's illegal.

The previously mentioned possibility of fire would be the bullshit reason

[jackfaire]

The previously mentioned possibility of fire would be the bullshit reason

Exactly kids have died in fires that were locked into their rooms and couldn't get out and parents couldn't get to them to unlock the door.