Socially accepted anti-social behaviour.

At the moment the whole of England is currently obsessed by the smoking ban. You either love it or hate it, it's either making you feel virtuous and righteous or, like me and the rest of us on the dark side, making you rebel and smoke more. I'm not going to go in to my thoughts about this as it will just turn into a soap box rant about Big Brother, human rights and governmental control. However, I will point out that if this to be taken in the way the government want us to, i.e. "We are protecting your and other people’s health", then I am looking forward to the day they ban the consumption of high fat foods in public places!

I would like to talk about another way of being inflicted with other people's bad habits and antisocial practices. I would like to talk about other people's children! Now, parents will tell you that it is their right to breed and that their little darling is just learning to express his emotions when he is screaming in a supermarket at a decibel level that would rival a pneumatic drill, and Darling Jane is exploring her creative side when she sprays some lurid coloured drink all over someone's sofa!

Just like non-smokers, I do not see why I should be subjected to other people's choices when all I am trying to do is finish my shopping. Yesterday, for example, I went to the shopping centre, just needing a few bits. The place, being a Saturday, was over run with small people believing this was their own private playground, whilst the parents looked on adoringly. I headed for the sanctuary of M and S's food hall, only to be confronted with more of the same - shouldn't there be some kind of minimum age limit in these places?!? Yes, I know I had a hangover, but in any state of mind I do not want to be stood in a queue for 10 minutes whilst the little cherub behind me alternates between kicking the backs of my legs and leaving me wishing I had industrial strength earplugs, whilst he makes his negative feelings towards vegetables very clear!

Don't get me wrong...as a rule I do not like children and certainly don't want any of my own, however, I love my niece's and some of my friend's children are pretty cool, though only in small doses. I just don't get why all parent's feel that it's only fair and, in some cases expected, that everyone else will recognize little Fred or Mary as the obvious genius they are and indulgently allow them to "express themselves" as they see fit. If the government launched a campaign for designated adult only areas in all public places they would have a very loyal supporter in me, I may even consider forgiving them for the smoking ban!