Don't get me wrong. I'm not some parental vigilante who, burdened by social responsibility, stalks the streets looking for wayward children to reprimand (don't they all carry knives nowadays?) but I wonder if the woman considered reprimanding the children herself?

I was at the cinema recently when, barely had the film started, I felt a tell-tale, staccato thud against the back of my seat.

When, within a minute or two, the girl of nine or so sitting behind me had developed a rhythmical drumming I decided to adopt my faux-naif approach.

I turned around and with saccharine politeness asked the young offender to refrain from booting my chair.

Instantly, the child's mother, chewing gum like a washing machine on final spin, shoved her face up to mine until it was nearly touching my nose.

'HOW DARE YOU HOUND MY DAUGHTER!' she bellowed. This was followed by a string of invective: I clearly knew nothing about little girls, she was only playing, I obviously had no children of my own. 'WHAT SHOULD I DO? PUT HER IN A STRAITJACKET?' she finished, with a sour flourish.

Well, it would be a start, I thought. But without one to hand, I calmly asked the woman to stop her daughter's kicking, and poof! More hysteria. You'd have thought I'd asked her to sell the charmless child to a slave ring.

I didn't expect the mother to listen, let alone consider the possibility that her child was in the wrong. I have heard too many parents excuse their offspring's unsociable behaviour with the vapid argument that they are 'simply being children'.

Which is why I often circumnavigate parents and happily rebuke their children directly. I simply don't understand why it is considered unacceptable to intervene when a child behaves badly.

I don't hover expectantly on the margins of other people's family trips, waiting for the opportunity to undermine some weakly forgiving and indulgent mother. But when parents opt to do nothing about their naughty children in public, whether it be through laziness, cluelessness or just adhering to their 'parenting' policy, I do get pretty annoyed.

And so to another mother, of a boy of around six writhing and screaming in ear-splitting fury on the carpet in the hospital waiting room we all happened to be occupying at the time last week — no, I did not roll my eyes at your child. Had I rolled my eyes at anyone, it would have been at you. My Beloved Other Half tells me that I exude disgust without the need to roll my eyes.

I'm all for children behaving like children, but it does a child no favours if the parents don't know how to teach him or her how to behave in certain places, and such behaviour will usually result in rejection from their peers.

Most parents are defensive. Yes, they do get it, they know their kid is rude and either they are rude themselves and don't care about the effect that it has on you, or they've managed to avoid taking responsibility and want to live in ignorance. In other words, you'll probably be talking to a wall.

But I find a bit of disingenuousness can often be helpful. That is, saying something like: 'Boy, my older one used to love to run up to people and burp in their faces too. In fact, he could burp the entire alphabet by the time he left primary school.

'The way that I got him to stop it was to . . . ' and then give a suggestion or two. In this way you are taking the blame first (defensive folk like that — they hate to be criticised), and they just may listen. It's worth a try, but you have to be willing to take it on the chin — or the back of your seat — initially.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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YOUR COMMENTS

i am a parent myself of a 6yr old girl and we always have taught her how to behave therefore i agree with you as there are many parents who cant be bothered to make the effort to teach their kids how to behave. Since my daughter was a baby she has always gone to restaurants and travelled with me, therefore i have no problems or stress whenever i take her out, However one thing i have a problem with is since she can say excuse me , please thanks etc when we are out some people seem to think she cannot hear see or speak, i.e. when in shops if she is looking at something and someone is trying to get past her they just tut instead of saying excuse me to her in which she can fully understand , this really annoys me and one day i was so fed up when a lady pulled faces and tutted i turned and said to her my daughter is not deaf and does not have eyes in the back of her head just because she is a child does not mean she doesn't have or understand manners.
ANON

I find the lack of respect from children disturbing nowadays. And Im only 31! In 20 years the attitude of children on the island has changed to "the word owes me something" not "what can I do for the world" Its sad but true and I also blame the parents! Problem - Annoying children?
Solution – Don't have them! Simple
NICK, Onchan

At last! Someone willing to stand up and acknowledge that there are some absolutely awful kids out there, due to bad parenting! How refreshing! I think this fairly recent problem lies with society today in which there seems to be an "all hail the child" mentality. It almost seems acceptable these days for kids to be spoilt, rude, generally run riot and you can guarantee they know their rights – but none of their responsibilities. Woe betide you if you actually say anything to the parent – cue a tirade of abuse about their "little darling". To these parents – and sorry, but it needs to be put bluntly - the world does not begin and end with your kids. You might love them – but not everyone else does! Maybe it's time to have some thought for other people out there. Maybe if they were less indulged and treated less like demi gods, then we may just stand a chance of producing a decent, responsible future generation. The fact is, a lots of kids' behaviour has gotten so bad (in the UK, and it's only a matter of time before we get it here too), that I'm starting to see a backlash from people (both parents and non parents) that are quite frankly sick to the back teeth of having to grin and bear this awful behaviour. Like Nick from Onchan, I'm not old – I'm 35, but have seen a real decline in parenting standards over recent years. What happened to kids giving up their seats on the bus? Saying "please" and thank you"? It's only basic stuff but these are things that I, and most of my generation, was brought up to do. It seems like the responsible parents like the poster above (with the 6yr old girl) are sadly in the minority these days, which is a real shame. I'll now sit back and wait for the indignant posts from the so-called parents mentioned above (who will doubtless recognise themselves and their kids' behaviour in what I've written) telling me how I know nothing because I don't have kids, or how it's the hardest job in the world, or how "kids will be kids" (which is the lamest excuse I've heard), or how wonderful little Timmy really is, etc, etc. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not interested in such excuses and I'll have doubtless heard them all before! If you're so keen to demonstrate how wonderful your kid is, then PLEASE teach him/her to behave appropriately in public!
DEE