By Reuters, 07/29/01

WASHINGTON -- Eighty percent of Americans surveyed say children are more spoiled today than a decade ago, and two-thirds of parents say their youngsters are very or somewhat spoiled, Time magazine said in an opinion poll released Sunday.

Many people believe children are more influential within their families than a generation ago, with 48 percent saying children have too much of a role in everyday family decisions, the poll found.

Thirty-five percent of parents said they were more permissive with their children than their parents had been with them, while 75 percent said children have fewer chores to do than children did 10 or 15 years ago, Time said.

Adults also expressed concern about the barrage of marketing aimed at children, with 71 percent saying their youngsters were exposed to too much advertising about toys and games they could buy.

The survey found that arguments among parents and their children most often deal with kids cleaning up their rooms, with 62 percent of adults reporting conflict over the issue.

More than half of the parents, 55 percent, said fights among siblings caused arguments between them and their kids, and 48 percent said children staying up late was a source of conflict.

The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive for Time and CNN, interviewed 1,015 American adults on July 17 and July 18. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.