mothers of daughters....

[MadrasT]

6. Interesting to think about.

I don't have any children, but my younger sister and I grew up in the same house with the same parents and turned out completely opposite.

She was always more than willing and able to play the female manipulation game to get what she wanted.

I have never, ever felt right about that and don't do it, at all. It clashes with my value system.

I would watch my sister play her manipulation games with my dad, even, and end up twisting him around to get what she wanted (material objects, permission to do things I was never allowed to do, etc.) It made me so mad that she would resort to that to get her way. (It also made me angry that she got stuff I never got. They bought her a car when she was in high school, for example. I didn't get a car until I was 19 or 20 and could buy it myself.)

I hate when women play the manipulation game... it makes me mad because I feel like it gives "all women" a bad rap. Some men end up assuming that being manipulative is just a hardwired "female thing" and all women behave that way. But I don't. Grrrr.

(I guess my point was, it isn't all about how the parents raise the kids? 'Cause we had the same parents and turned out really different.)