But there's a difference between being a rude, disrespectful parent who's teaching the values of entitlement to their little lords and ladies and simply being a parent trying to hold it together and stay connected to the world. The former is precisely the type who will, as happened to a friend of mine, bring their toddler into a gift shop and, after watching him merrily tear the wrapping paper to pieces to the horror of the store manager, declare that "Hugo is very artistic". The latter is the type who routinely wrestles with the stress of dealing with their own children in public (and the pointed looks they attract from other people) versus their need to remember what it's like to be a human being in that same public space.

I am familiar with both sides of this equation. I have previously been the snooty, child-free person who indulged her irritation with rambunctious kids, particularly those left to race around legs in cafes and restaurants or conduct loud, screaming tantrums in the confines of tram carts or, worse, airplane cabins. "Children should be put in the luggage hold!" I'd quip to anyone who would listen.

Of course, I have a baby now so have joined the ranks of the beleaguered parents who feel constantly pressured to keep their spawn restrained and under control. And while I still think it's acceptable for certain places to exclude children (poky bars, for example, or nightclubs, casinos and gun shows), I also lament the time I spent contributing to the judgment of parents. And let's be honest, when people talk about judging parents, they mostly mean mothers.

Because it is women who are largely tasked with the responsibility of the primary parenting of children.

It's women who have to wrangle cranky babies with high-pitched wails, who have to manoeuvre bulky prams through narrow aisles while feeling keenly aware that this taking up of space with children and their needs is considered the pinnacle of the attention seeking, look-at-me behaviour that women are so swiftly shamed for. It's us who'll be yelled at when we fail to keep a tight rein on these tiny pinballs, hurtling as they do between one shiny object and the next. And through all of this, it's just accepted that this irritation is not only acceptable but justifiably pushed back against.