IT’S that time of year when parents are at their wits end and the rest of the population may struggle to contain its patience. Yes, the school holidays are here.

And while we can all remember those lengthy, lazy weeks of pleasure and boredom, as adults we can easily be irritated by the behaviour of youngsters.

It’s a Summer fact of life that children will be everywhere, from supermarkets and parks to restaurants and your street. Unsurprisingly, sometimes they may be a bit noisy.

Part of the problem is that some parents refuse to be responsible for their youngsters at this time and don’t care where they are or what they’re doing. And part of problem is that some children are far too indulged by parents who refuse to deny them anything, so their public behaviour is often unacceptable.

The bottom line always, though, is that WE are the adults and must behave as the more mature individuals. So we have to cope with situations that may arise involving youngsters in a sensible, adult way.

While I have every sympathy with the pensioner who appeared to lose his temper with the group of youngsters on a Bolton train who refused to take their feet off the seats, putting one of them in an arm-lock was inadvisable.

Irrespective of the likely upset and fear caused to the child, touching a youngster like this could be classed as assault and a criminal matter. So why would any adult put themselves outside the law in this way?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m as short-tempered as the next person when I see a child behaving badly in public, especially involving cheek or abuse. I’m also dead against bad behaviour when – like making a seat dirty - it impacts on other people.

However, I’m still a parent and if someone hits or hurts my child, that person is automatically in the wrong. And it’s likely the law will see it that way, too.

The easy option is to give in to frustration and lash out, which is really what this train passenger did. While that is largely understandable when kids are being “cocky”, it’s the wrong thing to do.

The school holidays are not open hunting season on lippy youngsters demonstrating bravado in public. Yes, parents should instil better behaviour into their offspring but all adults should take a mature approach to what happens next.

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