Why do some parents...

take their kids to totally inappropriate places? We went to our local auction house today and bought a table to go under yesterday's shelves, in the hope that I leave the dining table clear. Fat chance! Annoyingly we paid more than we could have done last month, when two tables went unsold at £5...but I didn't know I wanted a table then.

To get back to the title - both last month and this month (and I suspect, every month) there has been a posh-looking young woman with a child of about 2. She's obviously not short of cash - last month she bought a garden seat at £150 and an art deco thing at over £200 - yet instead of getting a sitter she brings her poor child to the auction where he frets and yells and cries because he's bored stiff. It doesn't exactly enhance the experience for the rest of us, either.

You're probably all thinking I'm a miserable old child-hater, but I'm not (honest!) I just don't understand this modern thing of taking small kids everywhere. She can't possibly think the child will enjoy going to an auction ("Look at the nice antique, darling")

OK - rant over. And tomorrow I pick up my table woohoo!