dream_weasel
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I seem to remember a not very fun regression for both my kids around that time.
We used one of these from basically infant:
Sit in a comfy chair and bounce the kid until they pass out. Wait about 5 minutes to get solidly asleep, then transplant. One kid liked to have her brains scrambled with a pretty hard bounce, my son preferred a faster and shallower bounce.
We went back and forth between that and just holding kids across our lap in the rocking chair until one of the positions knocked them out.
Once they switched to toddler bed it was a simple matter of sitting by the bed and repeatedly laying them down until they got the point of bedtime. Consistency really matters though, every time you fight and fight and give in, the next time they fight even longer.
Last bit of advice where I differ from my wife:
If sleep isnt working, don’t force it. You’ll be an hour and a half into MAKING the kid go to sleep at 7p or 8p. Instead I prefer the same approach I used for my own sleep hygiene. If it isnt working in 20 minutes or half an hour but the time is not just an active yelling fight, go back to some quiet activities outside the bedroom for 15 or 20 mins and then try again. You can control when a kid wakes up, but you can’t force them to fall asleep.
The lies that are hurting you in these ways are not the ones about the mystery drink your parent is consuming. They are also not the lies you’d find out about anyway.
Your kids aren’t determining their trust in you on the veracity of every minor interaction you have with them, and if you think that’s a dubious statement, you are underestimating the vast, VAST number of interactions you are gonna have with a kid just in one day.
By all means, be honest with your kids, but drink your own milkshake and also screw with your kids so they don’t end up weird.