Yes, young children need to listen to us, i agree, otherwise it does tend to turn into a bit of a gong show. They turn into teens and heaven help us if they've become masters of manipulation. I appreciate everyone sharing their stories/opinions....I should have nipped this in the bud right from the start; he is very perceptive. I've had plenty of practice with my own difficult son leaving play places, but i do find it challenging to discipline daycare kids when their parent is there. But this clearly isn't working. And, we sometimes wait to see if they'll outgrow a phase (lucky if it's just 2 weeks!)...but this has been going on a while. Today, he was dressed and ready to go and i popped him into mom's arms so quick he barely had time to blink.