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PowerPoint Slides: the New Puppy-Dog Eyes
In hopes of receiving exactly what she wants for Christmas this year, Katie Johnsen, 11, created a Power Point presentation to show her parents what's on her wish list.
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"If you're not super specific, somehow, they'll get it wrong," Yoshi said.
Yui said she has only begun to sort through all of the models of cell phones available. After more than a year of lobbying by her son Zen, she has finally succumbed. He's getting a phone this Christmas.
"He can read about it in The Post," Yui said. "That's so Washington."
But sometimes even kids' most nuanced plea or compelling display of high-tech wizardry fails to persuade parents. That's when children return to their old standbys.
Seventeen-year-old Kelvina Marshall of Forestville has not had much luck persuading her mom to buy her a green Nextel cell phone. So she is trotting out the tried-and-true: Vowing to clean the kitchen at least once a month and promising to pull up her grades.
"Sometimes I say it so much, she doesn't believe," Kelvina said.
Yoshi says he can always fall back on what he calls "the boo-boo face": lip out, head down, puppy-dog eyes. No doubt about it, the kid looked adorable.
"Mom doesn't fall for that," Zen said.
"Yeah, she does, actually," Yoshi countered. Maybe Zen, nearly 14, had just lost the touch.
"You run out of boo-boo face power if you're too old," Yoshi said.
And therein lies what may be kids' most powerful tool of all.
Children grow up in a flash, and parents say they struggle to make every moment last. That's why Mary Sullivan is likely to cave in and buy her daughter yet another American Girl doll. She figures it's Charlotte's last doll before entering a world of makeup and boys. The gift is as much for her as it is for her daughter.
"Sometimes you get kids things because you're looking ahead. You're seeing that's it," Sullivan said. "Sometimes, it's the last gasp of childhood."
