Now that children cannot be punished in public, they have developed all sorts of tricks to get their parents to do precisely what they want. If a parent says that there will be no cookies before lunch, for example, the child starts screeching so loudly and for so long that a cookie is the only way out of trouble for the parent. The more people around, the better for the child, and the child knows it very well. Ever older children engage in elaborate tantrums to make their parents behave exactly as they wish. Emotional blackmail is the name of the game. Only a few generations ago, this was inconceivable. A few spanks would be enough. While I was growing up, it was perfectly acceptable for a grownup unrelated to a child to stop him or her from doing something inappropriate. Even a passer-by in the street could punish naughty children without much ado. All this is unimaginable today. But how did today’s children learn to employ emotional blackmail? And how will it evolve as they are growing up? Having learned to manipulate their parents, they will manipulate everyone around them even as grownups. Perhaps they will also figure out how to manipulate their own manipulating children.