Emotional blackmail is manipulation; it is meant to obligate someone to give someone else what they want—or else. What Emotional Blackmail Looks or Feels LikeYour parent wants to tell you how to raise your children. You may not even know what you want, so enmeshed are you with what your parent wants. Your son gives in to her because he is also being emotionally blackmailed. If any of this feels familiar to you, you may be being emotionally blackmailed.