This what I have observed so far from my 4 and 2 year old. My son has just turned 4 years old, and my daughter is 2 years old. They were both playing in the pool. Tristan, my son grabbed a little tin can bucket, and Tirza, my daughter, whatever my son has she wants it too. Her first instinct was to just grab it from him. Of course, Tristan resisted, and wouldn't let it go. So Tirza went inside the house, and went to the bathroom tub to grab a plastic bucket. She played with the plastic bucket for maybe a minute, and then she asked Tristan to trade. Tristan don't really care what it is made of, as long as it serves the same purpose, which he use it to pour water out of the pool. Tirza ended up with the tin can bucket. I just observed, and I said to Tirza, I know what you did, and she had a big grin on her face. So, my question is that, are women naturally more manipulative, or is this just an isolated case? I do noticed that girls develop language skill much faster than the boys on average, while the boys develop mechanical skills faster than the average girl.

I have seen my small cousins interact and I would say females are naturally able to read the emotions of the parents to get their way, while boys are likely to ask repeatedly and perhaps even throw a temper tantrum, but they use these blunt brute methods and are not as quick to know what works and what does't.

I wouldn't call it necessarily manipulative, more like emotionally and socially intelligent.

^ and that's why they call him playboy...

so smooooooooooothe...

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[COLOR="Magenta"]Hey, go heavy on the good and light on the bad,
A hair more happy and a shade less sad.
Turn all that negative down just a tad:
That'd be alright.[/COLOR]

I appreciate your choice of words.

In the end, isn't every human interaction a manipulation?
But the word has a negative connotation, APB chost a nicer wording.

In many cases women seem to be more able to read the "codes" of others and get what they want from them. The same ability can serve others too when the person feels the other and can give appropriate emotional support, comfort and other help.
But this is a generalisation, there are people of both genders who easily feel the other people and so can treat them accordingly and people of both genders who just always miss the right tone.

When we exchange the word manipulation the whole issue sounds kinda less mean.
We all manipulate our surroundings in one way or another, it's just important for our survival.
Some just know better how to do it and some don't know much about interacting effectively without disturbing.


Oh, tyler_cai, your daughter was very effective in that, she exchanged, she knew that she was not supposed to interrupt your sons action but had a fancy for that special bucket and ... traded. He didn't mind.
Fair deal and she had what she wanted.
That's how it should work all the time!

I do think there's some truth to this. My little girl is only 3, and she is very manipulative at time. In fact, she's currently trying to pit me and Thak against one another so that one of us will take her to Taco Bell and buy her some nachos. She's yet to realize that this won't work when we're sitting 5' from one another and can hear every word she's saying to the other. I fear for my bank account when she gets older and better at it, though!

He's worth it.

i prefer the theory that it is millions of years of evolution where the men used their strength and sheer force to get what they wanted, and females used their craftiness and cunning; it was a necessary survival skill for women in a male dominated world.

It's partly still today.

you guys post some awesome comments. thanks for sharing.