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That's how we've been doing bedtime lately.
"You don't have to sleep, but you do have to stay in your room"
She reads for a little and then passes out.
It feels so much more civilized than the battles we had been having.

I don't do this exactly with my 2 year old, but we do a variation on it that's more age appropriate and we have had pretty minimal tears since giving her some control of bedtime.

@catomd00: what's the two year old variation you guys do and when did you start?

@junebugsmama: she is still in a crib and liked to be rocked/sung to before bed, but it was getting out of control with the "one more song" requests and crying when we would put her down. Before bed, we snuggle in our bed and she gets to choose a show to watch. Around 8 (bed time), we will ask her if she is sleepy and is ready for bed or not. She usually is, but sometimes she says no and asks for another show. We let her watch another 15 minutes. Ever since doing this she has had almost zero tantrums about Turning the tv off and even does it herself and gets up and goes to her room.

Then, we rock and I sing her 2 songs. After that I ask her if she is ready to lay down. Again, sometimes she asks for 1 more song, sometimes not. Anytime I don't ask her if she's ready to lay down or if she says no but I say it's time to anyways it ends in a disaster. Almost every night she says she is ready to lay down after 1 extra song, 2 max and no tears after that. Bedtime has become a 5 minute routine after we get into her room vs. an unpredictable ticking time bomb taking up to an hour!

She turned 2 in February and we started it about a month after that. I have noticed generally that just giving her choices and control as often as I can has really made life so much easier on us and taken the struggle out of basically everything that has to get done in the day!

It took me awhile to come to the realization that this is what would work, but we've been doing it for 6 months now with my 5.5 year old and it works perfectly. He is allowed to stay in his room after bedtime books. He can read, draw, or play on his kindle if he has any time left for the day. And when he's ready to go to sleep he just does.
Definitely better than fighting with him to go to sleep when I want him to!

We don't, but bedtime is usually a smooth procedure for us. If it wasn't, I'd consider trying this!

you've inspired me to try this tonight! Our biggest fight is her wanting someone to lay with her, but maybe if i let her read in bed until she's ready she will fall asleep on her own!