Just beyond Morrisons I passed a family of four. The two parents and a pushchair were laden with shopping. While the little girl – about three – walked in front, the little boy – he looked about five – somehow managed to topple over his sister’s pushchair. The father shouted in his face, “You think you’re a big man now, eh?”

I thought this a particularly severe way of dealing with the situation (though perhaps the father had been driven to it) not because of the raised voice, or the in-your-face delivery but because of the nasty sarcastic tone which wouldn’t have been out of place before a genuine scrap between two hostile, full-grown adult males; “You think you’re a big man now, eh?” The father behaved as though his boy was “a big man,” deserving of sarcasm rather than guidance, patience and the demarcation of clear rules.

Although I haven’t experienced the torture a naughty child can inflict on its parent, I’m pretty certain that complex forms of communication like sarcasm and irony – often based on saying the opposite of what is meant – are not helpful.