Here's my worse manipulation story. About 6 months ago my son had drug court. A few hours before he got home i found out a dear friend of mine of 20 years had committed suicide. When he came home he wanted me to leave work early and take him to the jail to pick up his poseession (ipod). I had missed a lot of work when i found out so i had to stay to finish my work and couldnt go. He got very upset saying i was always thinking of myself. I explained to him that i had found out a friend had died and i really couldnt deal with an argument. He went into a tirade about how he had had a bad day too and all i ever thought about was myself. He was so angry at me for not picking up his ipod that when we went to court he pulled his PO aside and told him that he couldnt quit using drugs because i was always drunk and smoking dope. His PO didnt believe him and i requested that they drug test me knowing they wouldnt find anything - they refused to drug test me because they knew it was a lie. What upset me the most is that even though he knew i had lost a friend that day he was still willing to do whatever it took to get his ipod and if i didnt comply he was going to punish me. That was the day that everything changed for me. It was the day that i realized he did not care about me or how i felt. even when experiencing loss it was all about him and what he wanted. In a way i'm glad he was so blatant about it becuase at that point i could not deny that he was manipulting everything to his benefit. It was also an eye opener for the court as to the depths that he would sink.
a day later his dad came over. He knew my friend and sat and talked to me. As I told him about it I looked over and saw horror on my son's face. I knew that at that point he realized how badly he had treated me because even his dad was concerned for how i was feeling. But he never once apologized to me.