You do what???

When I was fifteen, I used to babysit for a crazy family.  Seriously, they were crazy.  I remember one night I went over there and the mother was showing me what to do for the evening.  She told me that they had a new routine for getting their toddler to bed.  She took me in to show me the baby toddler bed.  She then showed me a rope that was attached to the side of the crib. With a huge smile on her face she told me that they had started tying their son to his baby toddler crib.  I was shocked and quite appalled.  There are so many other options and tying the little boy to his baby toddler crib was definitely not the solution.  I think what they needed was to be patiently teaching their son the importance of staying in bed.  They are a number of different options available to achieve this.  They could start getting him ready for bed earlier so that he is calm when they try to put him to bed.  Or they could spend more time with him in the room while he is in his crib.  They should not use the crib as a way of punishing a child.  These are just a few alternatives that should have been used.