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“If you don’t give me what I want, I’ll have to look for it somewhere else. It’ll be your fault when I run away!”
When your child tries to manipulate you, you can feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you give in, they will manipulate you more. If you don’t give in, maybe it’ll really be your fault?
First of all, they want to provoke a reaction. If that reaction is strong enough, they’ll do it again.
So what you’re going to do is stand in front of the mirror and develop a poker face. Learn not to show what you are feeling.
Next, modulate your voice. We automatically match our tone of voice to the tone of the person who we are speaking to. If they scream, we raise our voices. So they raise their voices. So.. (you get the idea).
If you can keep your voice steady and low, they will lower their voice to match. Try it out!
(Yes, I know, I’ve skirted the issue and not dealt with it straight. Look, these are tips that can help you. To learn how to deal with a manipulative child, you’ll need a lot more than a short blog post.)
