Manipu-boy!

I think if Jackson were a super-hero, that would be his name: Manipu-boy! Able to play with the emotions of humanoids twice his height and five times his weight!

If you think about it, that's what these small people have to do. They have no real power as children -- neither physical (because they're little) or political (because they're young, can't vote, and have no access to capital and/or the means of production). So what do they fall back on?

Manipulation.

Here's the perfect example: Remember my post about Jackson's "dog lust," and what a strong play he made for a dog? Well, I'm proud to say we've stuck to our guns on that one. Jackson cannot physically threaten us to get a dog, and he can't go get his own money and buy one, so here's what he said to us once, not long after he came to the realization that Christmas had come and gone and no one had given him a puppy:

"I don't want to lie. I've been telling people at school I have three dogs..."

If Jeanette and I hadn't been laughing so much, and so hard, we might have entered into a negotiation with him then and there. But we didn't. We laughed.

But think about it: What a smart, syllogistic bit of manipulative logic on his part. He knows his parents have told him that lying is wrong. If he's lying about having dogs, wouldn't the noble thing for his parents to do be to actually give him dogs, so that he would then be telling the truth, as we all know he should be?

Brilliant, I tell you. Brilliant. Almost enough to make us want to get him a dog.

Almost.