We often hear about the North-South divide, the battle of the sexes and the class divide. But there’s another less well-known division I have discovered recently – the uneasy truce between the parents and the non-parents.

Social media has brought this to my attention. Certain comments made on Facebook have led to some quite heated debates. It seems nothing will infuriate a parent more than criticism of their own child’s behaviour, justified or otherwise. So I thought I would investigate further.

Although I clearly belong in the camp of the parents, I shall try to present an unbiased opinion. I do have one advantage when looking at these things that a non-parent lacks, which is that I used to be one myself. I must admit that as a younger man I failed to comprehend the endless conversations that parents had about their children, from eating habits to nappies to how long they slept at night.

If a colleague brought her new-born in to the office during maternity leave, I would make a beeline for the vending machines and stay out of the way until the coast was clear. But I was young, I knew not of the joys of fatherhood that lay in a far off and unimagined future.

Recently I witnessed quite a major spat on Facebook where a non-parent put up a rant complaining that they had gone for a meal out and it had been ruined by noisy, screaming, unruly children. Now had this lady gone out for a romantic dinner for two at 9pm in one of Oxford’s finer eateries then maybe she could justify feeling aggrieved. But she had in fact visited a well-known branch of a chain of pub restaurants marketing themselves specifically for families at 7pm on a Saturday night. I couldn’t help thinking, “what did you expect?”

Whenever I am choosing where to go on holiday, I always spend hours scouring Trip Advisor to try to pick the right place to go. I naturally want to find somewhere family-friendly with lots to do for the kids, and in most cases this research has paid off. But reading the reviews, it seems many are not. There are all sorts of complaints about kids spoiling the holiday from people without children. I have to say again though, “what did you expect?” These reviews are from people who booked into a hotel clearly designed for families in the middle of August. Quite why anyone without children (other than a teacher) would want to book their holiday in August in the first place is beyond me.

They have the freedom to go away at any time of the year. Us parents on the other hand are forced to pay the outrageous prices charged by travel firms during the school holidays as we have no alternative. My best advice to these non-parents who hate kids is choose where and when to eat and holiday carefully, it’s not that difficult to avoid us. And don’t forget, you may well be in our shoes one day!

Jason Ayres is a Bicester based author of two books on parenting. Follow him on Twitter @AusterityDad.