Gillian Bridge suggests that taking children to adult arenas where they are unlikely to behave – like the pub or the cinema – is largely to blame for toddler tantrums.

The former teacher provides therapy and counselling for people affected by behavioural problems.

She told The Times that the ‘semi-feral behaviour called the terrible twos’ does not happen in other countries.

“Neither this phrase nor the concept exists in many parts of the world.”

The author of The Significant Delusion has said that people who visit Britain from overseas are stunned to see toddlers acting out.

In Asian and more traditional European cultures, she believes, children are expected to learn about hierarchies quickly, picking up on adults’ knowledge and experience. 

In Britain, however, she claims that parents often ignore the strops or try to discipline children whose behaviour is to be expected because they are in an environment that isn’t appropriate for them.

“We expect to take our children to an awful lot of places and get them to fit in with adult arenas which we wouldn’t have thought appropriate years ago.”

Bridges added that this is most apparent at the nursery gates.

“There we will find harassed mums and dads who are either vainly attempting to restrain their struggling, squawking tinies or hopelessly giving up on the attempt, while all around them voices mutter sympathetically about the “terrible twos”.

What are your thoughts? Have you experienced the ‘terrible twos’?