Comment by makeitdouble

I read parent's wording of "manipulation" as not in the usual negative connotation, and more as making the other person do something specific.

For instance if you wanted a security guard to help you find your way in a shopping mall, there would be approaches that are more effective than others. For instance making it sound more like you have something important to do and they'd save your day by helping isn't specially abusing the person. They might feel pretty good about helping you, it's still somewhat part of their job so you're not tricking them either.