The number of people who seem to expect children to behave exactly like adults never ceases to amaze me; these are the people who give you dirty looks when your child kicks off. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen mothers apologise for such NORMAL behaviour. I just refuse to do it; I’m not going to be apologetic when my two year old behaves like a two year old and anybody who thinks I should obviously has less developed frontal lobes than she does! It especially irks me when I’m already ensconsed somewhere – a restaurant, a plane etc – with my toddler and somebody sits down next to us and then gets irritated by her very existence. Bugger off! Don’t sit next to a child if you don’t like them, just move along and sit somewhere else!

Very true. My mother has always been of the opinion that in the UK, dogs are more welcome than children. But just because we’re a nation of animal lovers should not prevent us being welcoming towards children as well. We’ve all been children.