Mrs N J Harris (Letters, February 22) feels parents with children are treated as second-class citizens at supermarkets.

On the contrary, I find everything is geared towards parents with children - preferential parking, special child trolleys, reward schemes and so on.

This approach is not only confined to supermarkets but can be found everywhere.

We now live in a society where the needs of children and parents are considered paramount and everywhere are special concessions of one sort or another for parents with children.

Gone are the days when children were not welcome in restaurants, pubs and other social places, and gone are the days when children were to be seen and not heard.

Indeed, the status of children has been raised to almost iconic proportions, where they are above reproach and the needs of everyone else are secondary.

So, really, parents cannot complain because it is people who do not have children who are treated as second-class citizens.

We are the ones who have to suffer because inconsiderate parents are unable or unwilling to control their child and stop it from throwing tantrums because it can't have its own way.

We are the ones who cannot go shopping without having to avoid buggies blocking the pavement, the doorway, the aisle or the bus.

We are the ones who have to sit in traffic jams because some lazy child is driven to school by some equally lazy mother.

At the other end of the scale, everyone suffers when the spoilt brats turn into something far more sinister as they become older.

How on earth did we reach the stage where children's needs are pandered to in the extreme, to the detriment of all others?

Why do parents appear so weak and helpless that they allow their children to dictate not just their own lives but everyone else's too?

Why do parents have no embarrassment or shame when their child is throwing a tantrum in public and why are they unwilling to do anything about it?

A good slap may not actually stop the screams but it should teach the child the meaning of respect and who is in charge.

So, Mrs Harris, that is why people like me park in your parent-with-child spaces - as a silent protest against you bringing your child there.

I know it is illogical and will not get me anywhere but, hey, it makes me feel better.

Let any supermarket manager try to admonish me for doing so and he will find my not inconsiderable monthly shop goes elsewhere.

Before you start stereotyping me, I am neither old nor disabled, nor do I belong to the "hang 'em, flog 'em and bring back National Service" brigade.

I would never hurl abuse at you and do not park in disabled bays. Nor would I refuse help to anyone who needed a hand.

I am just one of the silent majority who wants to see children in their proper place, instead of in my face.

-Brian Jeffries, Peacehaven