This morning, while enjoying coffee at a cafe, a father with two kids sat down at the table next to me.

This morning, while enjoying coffee at a cafe, a father with two kids sat down at the table next to me.

The boys began running about with much ado and a lot of noise, fetching coffee bags from the shelves to "buy", chatting loudly and tripping over people's computer wires.

At one point a student with an expensive laptop politely asked the father if he would mind swopping tables with him, so that his wires would be out of the kids's way.

"Well, I'm not sure if having wires here, with the kids around, is a very smart thing to do," the father said, declining to swap tables.

He suggested that the student might unplug instead - or pack away the computer completely.

The student stared at him with his mouth open and people watched to see what would happen next.

One of the kids, noticing that his father was distracted, seized the opportunity and ran out the door.

"Hey!" the father shouted, running after him - but now kid number two saw his opportunity and climbed up the cafe's shelves to help himself to five paper cups.

Someone next to me leaned over and whispered: "Don't you feel as if you're watching an episode from the Simpsons?"

The kids were cute and innocent enough, but it occurred to me, having spent some time away from this country, that parents here have become very liberal in their child rearing.

Were kids this wild in the past? I read a very interesting article, written by a "liberal parent", on this. We good liberal parents have brought up a generation whose members think of themselves as outside or beyond the social fabric.

They have never had to worry about anyone other than themselves, and voilà! they don't. This has me worried. - Tekkalogue