Hellobee Boards

This sounds similar to bedtime with my 3 year old. She will only fall asleep if I'm laying next to her. What helps is setting up a clear routine and consequences of high value items with solid follow through on the consequence.

If she starts to goof off at bedtime / when she is supposed to be going to sleep, I leave the room, which is what she does NOT want to happen. That corrects a lot of behavior - just calmly leaving (no fight, no yelling, no anger). I tell her I'll return when she is laying down quietly and trying to sleep, and I do and we start the process over.

If she wants me to stay, she's required to be "working towards sleep", or I leave again.

So, I don't know if this is helpful or not, but here's some commiseration!

I think too for the leaving to be effective it has to be immediately upon first offense. Make the rules clear, like after book we are laying down with our head on the pillow and feet tucked in. If your head gets off the pillow I am leaving. And the first time it does just state that since she wasn't lying nicely with her head down you are leaving. Come back in after a bit and ask her if she's ready to try again. It will be rough for 2-3 days but she will pick up on it quickly because she doesn't want you to leave. But start it immediately not after you've made bargains and given warnings. It has to be immediate action/reaction.