Ask any parent of two – or more – about the tricks of the trade, and they'll tell you that each child is his own little universe. What works for one fails spectacularly with another. So here's a grab bag of kid-tested tips from seasoned parents!

Maurissa Guibord, a Scarborough, Maine, mother of triplets, got her three tucked in quickly by making bed the setting for nightly read-alouds. She also let them know what to expect. "I'd say, 'Mommy's going to read until the end of the chapter, and when I'm done, I'm done," she says.

To ease her son's tears when "goodnight" came, Irene Kosman, a mom from Lovettesville, Va., used "the mommy naptime chair." To start, she placed the chair between the bed and the door. "Over the next week, I scooted the chair closer to the door until I was out of the door," Kosman says. "If David got out of bed, I silently returned him." The tears stopped.

Bratenahl, Ohio, resident Terri Kastelic smoothed the move to bedtime with transitional objects. "I encouraged both my kids to attach to a blanket or stuffed toy, which I used whenever they napped," she says. Kastelic also let the kids decide whether and when to give up a "lovie." Her daughter, now 12, still finds comfort in sleeping with her blanket.

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