Babies also seem to think they are masters of the Jedi mind trick, using steady eye contact as a distraction technique. Another 11-month-old, upon being presented with toast she didn't want to eat, would hold eye contact with her mother while discreetly chucking the toast onto the floor.
"She's very sneaky," the mother told Dr. Reddy, "she thinks you can't see it."
I wonder if these cunning infants have turned into narcissists!
This was interesting.
My nephew is three, he throws tantrums which are a form of manipulation.
Children manipulate, that is a fact but what makes a child stay a child, or grow up to be an adult with an emotional intelligence of age 3, is their belief that they are bad and do not deserve love, therefore, the only way they can get the love that they are so hungry/starved for is by manipulation.
Hopefully, kids will outgrow manipulating for what they want, if the parents loves them enough to discipline them.
The sad thing is for the N is that they never outgrow manipulation.