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MonAmi, Bayswater, Bloemfontein (2026)

09/08/2026

🩷💜

09/08/2026

Manipulation is a heavy word to attach to a child, and once you understand what's actually happening underneath, it starts to feel like the wrong word entirely. 💫

Manipulation implies intention, a calculated strategy, an understanding of how to influence someone else's behavior for personal gain.

That's a level of cognitive and emotional sophistication most children simply haven't developed yet.

What looks like manipulation, the tears that seem to appear right on cue, the sudden shift in tone the moment they don't get their way, is almost always something much simpler and far less calculated, a nervous system doing whatever it knows how to do to get an unmet need addressed.

This distinction changes how we respond in the moment.

👉🏼 A child crying dramatically over being told no isn't plotting to wear you down, they're overwhelmed by disappointment and don't yet have a more regulated way to express it.

👉🏼 A child who suddenly becomes affectionate right when they want something isn't scheming, they're using the only tools they've learned actually get them connection or attention.

Un Neither of these is manipulation, they're both a child's best attempt at communicating a need with an underdeveloped toolkit. ✨

None of this means every behavior gets a free pass or that boundaries disappear, structure still matters. It just means the lens we use to interpret a child's behavior shapes how we respond to it, and assuming the worst intention where none exists tends to create more disconnection than the original behavior ever did.

What looks like manipulation in a child is almost always a nervous system trying to get a need met the only way it knows how. 💜