[Plett25]

Best as I can remember, this is what we did for our 3 kids

Routine. Same time, same routine. Bath and story time, ugh, too much work. Some people do that, but not us. Our routine was jammies on, light off, goodnight, close door.

Choice. Give them the illusion of control. Kids are stupid. Do you want Mommy to take you to bed, or Daddy? Red jammies or blue? Guaranteed they don't choose the last parent that nagged them or did something they didn't like. And they go to bed happy to have stuck it to that one parent.

Warning. 30 minutes to bed time, what do you want to do? 10 minute warning. 2 minute warning. Bedtime. Use different numbers everyday, it doesn't matter, remember kids are stupid. If you say 10 minutes and it winds up being 18 minutes, no problem, they don't know the difference.

Stubbornness. They'll test you every once in a while. Out stubborn them. You might have to camp out outside their room every once in a while. They don't get to win.

Bedtime, not sleep time. "I don't care if you go to sleep, but stay in your bed" This night require stubbornness. Again, kids are stupid, more likely than not they'll happily stay in bed but try to stay wide awake just to stick it to the man.

Bedtime is never a punishment. Bedtime helps them grow up big and strong. Kids are stupid, they don't know that until we teach them. "Do you want to be tall like daddy? Well, you need sleep." "Do you want to play with your friends tomorrow? You need sleep to have the energy." We basically taught our kids that sleep fixes almost everything, or at least makes it better.

Good luck.