The worst question summary ever...

[Undertoad]

Yeah yeah. It's actually not scary at all because this is not manipulation on her part. This is standard childhood learning of how emotional reactions work, and how and when to regulate emotions and etc.

J'ever see a kid fall and scrape his/her knee on the sidewalk, and then have a 1-mississippi count to decide whether to cry? If mom rushes over and presents all sorts of worry, then the tears flow - otherwise crying may be a waste, and the kid may sense, well, I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with this pain in some other way.

But it's productive emotions - we may say there is no sense ever crying over a tiny injury, but if the kid never has emotions, never gets any emotional connection, never sees caring, he may be dealing with horrible psychological roadblocks his entire life.