Many parents, it emerged recently, are “afraid” to discipline their children. They’re worried that the row will be broadcast online making them look like wazzocks. Obviously this is gutless, feeble and pathetic — but entirely understandable. Ever since I saw the now famous YouTube clip of a mother ranting at her two ponytailed daughters for failing to flush a lavatorial atrocity — “It was f***ing one of yers,” admonishes Mater — I’ve lived in fear of the unnoticed child in record mode. The clip is funny but if I were that woman I’d want to crawl under a stone quietly sobbing. One unguarded moment on a bad day and you’re forever “Sweary Turd Mum” being sniggered at by strangers over breakfast in Beijing.
Adults also