I assume this all took place in the morning, before the sun was high. Therefore the car would have been unlikely to have overheated in the time it takes to fill two bags of shopping.

Irate does not report whether the children were in any distress – they may have been sleeping, playing or crying.

Perhaps before judging the parent, we need to know if the children were ill, with measles for instance, which would have made it difficult to take them into the shop without being careless of other people’s welfare. Perhaps the mother is a single parent, let down by childcare, urgently visiting a sick relative for which essential shopping must be done?

Irate does not know a number of things about the circumstances of this situation but does feel a duty to involve the law or social services in the life of a family about whom he/she knows nothing.

Police and social services are bound by rules and have to follow up every complaint, however misguided, to protect themselves as well as the family involved. I would ask that before Irate decides to go down a road that could cause incalculable heartache to a possibly innocent family, they look at the view a bit more carefully from their moral high ground.

This parent may have found herself forced to do what she did because of circumstances, or may have been taking a calculated risk. We may never know.

In the final analysis, we do need people to keep an eye open for the possible abuse and mistreatment of children. We do not need do-gooders who, with unspecified experience of children, feel the need to involve themselves in other people’s lives.

YVONNE PENROSE

Edwardstone