MIXED BLESSINGS Manipulative Kids, Inflation vs. Romance, Diamond Loyalty, Etc.

If you can’t spend more time with your kids, at least you can buy them some potato chips. So goes parenthood in the hectic ’90s, to judge by the results of a recent Yankelovich Partners survey among kids age 9-17. Asked whether they’re “successful at getting parents to do” various things, 67 percent said they can badger mom or dad into buying the snack foods they like. But just 38 percent of respondents succeed in persuading their parents to “spend more time with you.”