OT- handling two year-olds?

[jazz]

anyone who has children..your advice would be greatly appreciated here.
As most of you know, I babysit for two lovely kids; Harriet 6, and William 2.
I can handle Harriet pretty well..(aside from the obvious problem i might face) by that, i mean i can reason with her, and if necessary, take care of her fine..
but im struggling with William..
The other night, he was really grizzly following Harriets' birthday party..he wouldn't get to sleep, and was crying an awful lot, after bouncing on his cot and throwing out his covers.
Now this will sound silly..at around 8o'clock, William was still in tears, completely clinging to the bars of his cot.. when i tried to move him, he was really insistant on staying put..i felt like such an idiot for being offended by a two-year old! I tried reasoning with him, but i wasn't sure how much he understood..exactly how much can a two-year old understand?
I was reluctant to pick him up, because his parents don't usually resort to this, and i thought it may unsettle him even more..
I guess my main questions are; what does it usually take for a two year old to "need" picking up..and how much do they actually understand? I don't know what the best way to handle him is either (ie. when he clings to his cot) what would be the best way to deal with it?

[rhinoseri]

Well, I babysat a two year old and every day after school during the month of November. Two year olds are kind of hard to deal with sometimes. They can walk and talk, but you're not really sure how much they understand. Anyways, Toby, the two year old was really sweet, and didn't give me much trouble. While I was there, he only had one tantrum, and it happened to be when his mom was still there, so that was good for me. But yeah, when putting him to bed, he would sometimes protest, and if it got bad, I would tell him that the police man from Bob the Builder would arrest him. I'm not really sure about the picking up part. I don't know... I guess if they're really upset, and you know that they wont go straight into a tantrum, it would be okay, but otherwise I don't really know.

[jazz]

thanks! thats helpful..ill have to use some sort of similiar tantrum deterrant..
they *are* difficult..but id much rather be up all night with him, than a 6 year old..six year olds can answer back lol.
i think you're extremely brave for doing that everyday!

[donna1216]

I have a 2 year old, and I would say discuss his bedtime ritual with his parents, find out how strict they are, if that night he was acting out from too much sugar (from cake, etc.) or maybe just still wound up from the birthday party excitement. Ask them if they are firm on him staying in bed, even if he cries or throws a tantrum, until he falls asleep; or if they are flexible and would like to have him comforted before he falls asleep. If he was on a sugar high or over stimulated, he might have needed to get out of bed and expel some energy. I find that when my kids are like that, they run around like crazy for a few minutes, then CRASH OUT for the rest of the night.

[jazz]

hey good idea.
this is what i do know.. William usually goes down at 6pm and sleeps right through the night.
Recently he's started to cry when he has been put down, but they usually let him for 10 minutes or so. If he's still crying, one of them (usually his dad) goes up and asks him whether he's "finished being silly" lol, and he's out like a light.
I think the other night was an exception, they'd said that he'd eaten a lot of cake etc..so provided that was a one off i don't mind..
any ideas about ways to handle them?