Financial manipulation comes in many forms. The problem is most
of those forms are almost universally accepted. This is because its
part of a parent's
job to teach the child to be able to take care of himself or herself
financially. This is done by teaching the child the following things:
1) You can't always get what you want (financially or otherwise).
2) You should not depend on someone else to take care of you
financially for the rest of your life.
3) You can control the level of financial stability you have
in life as long as you can control how long or hard you are willing to
work for it.
4) You can get what you want; you simply have to wait for it.
These seem fair. As a matter of fact, they are fair. On
first glance, the first and fourth principles almost seem to contradict
themselves. The first
is something you'd teach a very young child. He or she sees a
new toy in the store and takes a liking to it. The child expects
it almost immediately.
That's when the parent has to make the child understand that you can't
always get what you want. Of course, at this point, the child's too
young to
work for himself or herself.
The problem comes when parents are not trying to make the child understand
life's lessons for the child's benefit, but when they try to teach the
child to do what they (the parents) specifically want, rather than
what is best for the child to know. This is where problems occur.