Have you tried offering a reward for staying in her bed all night? As far as transitioning to the new bed, let her help pick out her new bedding so she has some involvement. You might pick out a couple of options in advance and let her choose from those other she might go off on a whole new theme. Brag up how she is such a big girl to get the new bed. Have you friends and neighbors brag her up too. My kids liked to turn the light on too. I fixed the problem by getting (I don't know what this is called) a thing I could screw into the light socket. It sort of looks like a light socket. You can buy them at Wal-Mart back by the light switch covers. Anyway, it had a pull chain on it (some come with an extra outlet). I would just turn the light off at the bulb every night so flipping the switch didnt work. I put a night light in the extra outlet so the kids can't reach it. I would move the furniture away from the light switch so she doesn't have a reason to be climbing. Since your dd seems to enjoy her time in isolation, I would probably leave the door open. Give her a consequence for every time she wanders out. You may have to take away a toy or some other action. Don't sit and talk to her. Make a simple statement and return her to bed. After the first time, just use a gesture and no words. Don't let her have the attention she's wanting. If she knows you mean business, she'll quit. Good luck! She will get over this.

We went thru this with DD when she was 22 months. (And wow I made some desperate posts). Some of the suggestions I got were helpful, especially: 1) Convert the crib into the toddler bed, but rearrange the room, buy new sheets and make it a special occassion. I picked a snugly pink organic flannel and she loves it. 2) Put a (tall) gate across the door. DD launched herself over the short presure gates so we mounted a locking gate on the outside of the doorframe. 3) At naptime, close the curtains so it's dim and relaxing (a lullaby tape is a nice touch). Put anything you don't want her to play with out of reach. Explain: it's quiet time... she may sleep or read her books or whatever she wants... mommy is going to rest. Go thru your usual sleep rituals and then leave. 4) If she hollers at the gate... that's your call. Some parents let them yell, stopping by every five minutes or so to re-explain the concept of quiet time. Since youre using the gate instead of the closed door, you can see that she's okay. 5) The length of quiet time is up to you. If she hates it, start out with maybe 30 minutes. (One friend uses a timer.) As she adjusts you can lengthen it. And here's my testimonial: DD is the type of first-born extrovert that expects my undivided attention every waking minute. And yet, after a tearful two-day introduction, this has worked beautifully. Some days she plays quietly with her books or a puzzle I leave out. (Without fail she plants herself on her lambskin rug, another idea for you.) Other days she stays in bed and sleeps. Other days she plays until sleepy and crawls into bed. Still other days she sleeps and then wakes up to play quietly. That last one, especially, is a miracle. A note on the transition: Before putting up the gate I realized that her worst nightmare was my closing the door. I explained to her that when she stayed in bed, the door could stay open. If she got out, the door would have to close. (Sorry, my love, it's simply the law of the universe.) I closed the door on her a few times, and explained that the door would open when she got back into bed. It never took more than 15 seconds. She would read, play with her doll and almost inevitably fall asleep. I later started using the gate and "quiet time" (which she does not mind like a closed door, perhaps because she is used to the concept) because I wanted to take a nap myself. One day she woke up before me and, rather than coming to my room like I expected, she went downstairs and made mud pies in the flowerpots. Cheers and LOL!

I was trying to say that it may be a mistake for young women to postpone starting their families merely because they believe they can always have children 'later'. I'm not saying women must bear children young, with or without loving partners, simply because they are most fertile then. I'm saying that it is a mistake to think that 'later' is going to be just as easy -- for mother or child, short term and long term. The reasons for 'sooner' do have some real benefits -- for mother and child, and because 'sooner' means longer with extended family, while Grandma and Grandpa are more likely to be physically functional. I'm senstitive because I could not conceive -- in my twenties! We were able to adopt when I was 30, but our DS lost both his (by then aged!) grandmothers before he was eight. Our DGS is likely to lose all of his grandparents as a young child, never having known us as the vital adults we were. Many classmates of our DS have postponed children while they got advanced degrees and went up corporate ladders. Suddenly they are nearly 40. Now they can't conceive or are going through frustrating and very expensive infertility treatments, often to no avail. I also see some who had their children soon after college who are now preparing to return to careers -- no, not at the 'top', but they have the families they wanted, and they will have careers. (Once this economy rebounds, we hope!) I only mean to say that we can't fool Mother Nature as successfully as some think. It came up because this thread is about Grandparenting. My DS didn't get enough. I'm afraid my DGS won't either.

I got off pretty easy with my oldest. She has always been level headed and responsible which I think was partially the reason the girls who were her best friends going into h.s. eventually pushed her out of their social circle. At the time it was a very difficult experience for her (and as her mom, heart wrenching to see her being excluded), but now in hindsight, thank God! And dd has a much better circle of friends. The popular thing to do here upon graduation is to rent two huge houses in the Outer Banks-one for guys and one for girls. Each house has a couple,of parents present for the entire time and there are certain rules, tho from all the stories I’ve heard over the years, the entire week is binge drinking, sex and girl drama. How relieved was I when dd’s group decided to go on a cruise instead which, believe it or not was actually cheaper. It was well researched, as mentioned before, parent chaperoned (one kid didn’t turn 18 until end of summer so they were required to have an adult fortunately!). WRT parties with and without adults, I have been struggling with this the last few months with my son, a junior. It is unbelievable to me how many parents allow their kids to have parties, with underage drinking, while they are home! MD passed a law a year or so ago that holds parents accountable if caught - sadly the law was precipitated by an accident that killed several teens who had been drinking at a party where a parent provided alcohol. And then there are the parents who allow multiple teens (sometimes coed) to sleep at their homes when they return from underage drinking parties, basically enabling them to drink w/o parents. I know one mom in particular, who either allows the group to Uber back to her house, where she will hang out feeding them or chatting with them, knowing they are all drinking and/or drunk -this permissiveness makes her the “cool” mom. And then I wonder about the clueless parents - don’t they realize why their kids are always spending the night at that one house. I’m hoping the mean mom -won’t let my son go to these parties. Long winded post to say...I definitely would not allow my h.s. aged kid to go away for an unchaperoned weekend, not stay home overnight alone. Even a chaperoned weekend would be dependent on who the parents were b/c as mentioned above, even with parents present, there are plenty who still would allow them to drink, etc.