What I Learned At School Today

I was picking up Alex from school when I came upon an interesting scene. There was a harried mom, standing at the base of the church steps, looking up at a rambunctious boy of perhaps four. She had three fingers in the air and was loudly announcing to him, "THREE!" He looked down at her and kept on playing on the landing. She added a finger and counted deliberately, "FOUR!" The boy didn't even glance her way. But before counting "five," she commanded his attention by shouting his name. (He had clearly lost interest in the countdown by this point.) "FIVE!" she then exclaimed, at which point he looked down at her and blew a series of giant raspberries.

I have always believed that counting up to obedience tells the child two things, neither of which really affects obedience: 1.) You don't have to obey until I get to [insert number here--generally three or five are the magic numbers] and 2.) I don't actually want to discipline you, so could you help us both out and obey by the time I'm done counting?