"Bully tears" is exactly right. My mother terrorized me and everyone else with her crocodile tears for decades. When I finally figured out (as an old man, unfortunately) what she was doing, I started calling her on her emotional abuse and the tears and sobbing would stop as if I'd shut off the tap. She would literally go from breathless sobbing and tear strewn cheeks to calm rationality if I simply laughed at her histrionics. She would be, like, "hmmm . . . why doesn't this work anymore and what form of manipulation will?"