LETTER: Let children be children

On Thursday afternoon a friend of mine went to a café in South Street in Lancing with her three-year-old boy and a friend also with her toddler.

As toddlers do, one of them started to swing his legs and hit the seat of a lady in front.

Instead of turning around and telling the toddler that it’s not nice and could he please stop or wording something similar to his mother, this woman turned around and in the rudest possible tone quite aggressively told the mother in not so many words that she should leave the café with her toddler. My friend was so shocked and taken aback that she just left.

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I met her outside with her friend and she was quite distressed and shocked that people could be so aggressive in tone and body language.

Is it now in fashion to have a go at toddlers and small children because they behave as toddlers and children?

Are we as a society now at a point that when it comes to children we are regressing to Victorian times of ‘children should be seen and not heard’? If this is the case I am not surprised at the depression rates of children.

I have often been annoyed by toddler behaviour in public places but then I remind myself that I was one once and that with two or three years the world is exciting, tiring, scary and sometimes boring and a smile and polite word usually helps.

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It seems to me that in these modern times children now are included in the group of things that should not be heard or seen in public places just like the disabled or the elderly because quite simply they are seen as a nuisance and disturb the good burghers of the parish.

I must admit, I pity the woman and others who react likewise, who object to toddler behaviour and obviously are not able to converse in polite tones.

Children are our future and should be cherished and not looked upon as objects of displeasure or indeed a nuisance.

A. Parker

Chester Avenue

Lancing

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