I'm a father of three very different children.
Since the second one was born, my wife and I have held a fairly structured routine. Into their jammies, teeth brushed, and good night hugs and kisses from the parent not putting them to bed. The other one reads Goodnight, Moon and Just in Case you Ever Wonder and a good night prayer. We've been doing the routine for over four years now. It works like a charm, or at least, it used to.
Our oldest is a girl, the second is a boy, and the youngest is a girl, all two years apart. Things went great until we moved the youngest into a toddler bed. We used to sit on my oldest daughter's bed and when we were done, my son would go into his room, and they would all get a good night kiss and off to dreams they went. Not so with number three after we got new beds.
First it was that we weren't supposed to be on her bed. Then it was she wouldn't be quiet for stories. Then it was she would start calling for my wife once we left.
She fights everything. At two, her biggest kick is 'I do it myself'. You can't tuck her in, you can't do anything for her. She gets it into her head that she doesn't want to go to bed and it's throwdown time. Since the girls share a room, we have to take her out so the oldest can sleep on school nights. She is two, of course.
It sounds terrible, but I put her on the couch with me and tell her that if she gets down she will get spanked. She cries for a while and I watch TV, write on my laptop, or play XBox. About the time that she stops saying that she doesn't like it, she goes to sleep. It can take anywhere from ten minutes to two hours. She never gets up, but she will often throw her blanket onto the floor and beg for me to get it since she knows I won't let her get down.
The only trouble we've had other than her nearly constant struggle for independence is that my son would get out of bed and play with his toy cars or trains in the light that spilled down the hall from the living room.
All kids are different. The third one is so much like me that I want to scream sometimes. I love her, she is cute and adorable, but sometimes I don't like her very much. My wife and mother laugh at me because #3 is the most like me.