WELL of course other people's children can be a pain - but so can grown ups too. Let's face it, in the world of work, nobody's perfect.

There is a child-free backlash. Now that firms are becoming more family-friendly, people without children are apparently fed up with covering for colleagues who are parents - school holidays, sports days, sudden illnesses and the Christmas carol concerts are causing bitterness and resentment.

According to a recent poll for Management Today, in this country 55 per cent of childless staff are apparently less than pleased at what they consider favouritism to people with children. In America it's building up into something quite nasty.

Oh yes, I remember it well. When I was young and single I regularly started the working day in chaos because I had to cover for colleagues who were late doing the school run, or taking children to nursery. They'd have to leave early too. Not fair, I thought. And as for school holidays, well my office was practically a one-man band - me.

There again. When I had a night on the town, I would stagger in not only late, but probably clutching a hangover as well. Mothers who'd been up all night with nothing more exciting than teething babies would glare at me with hostile jealousy and do my share of the work until the coffee and aspirins kicked in.

Parents talk about their babies at work, which can get pretty boring for everyone else. Well yes, but then other people drone on about cars or football, giggle about boyfriends, or make long personal calls. On the scale or irritations, reciting Monty Python's dead parrot sketch at the coffee machine probably beats baby's nappy rash ten to one.

Anyway, most parents find it easier to compartmentalise their lives - to go to work and forget about their families and talk about something else, anything else. Makes life easier too.

But it's not just parents who need special consideration. There are those with elderly parents, sick wives, or even those seriously involved with shopping, football matches, or golf - all of which means leaving early occasionally. Or brides who spend six months before the wedding having two-hour lunches to look at dresses, deal with printers or choose just the right flowers for the end of the pews.

Parents like time off in school holidays. But during the last World Cup, apparently one in five people was at home for the England Tunisia match. Bet they weren't babysitting either.

Come to that, what about those people who are off ill so much because they are so stressed from working too hard? What they need is something else in their lives, a family, for instance.

At some time or another, we are all likely to ask for special consideration from our employers and colleagues. The best way to get that is to show the same consideration towards other people. Even if they're parents. At least children grow up and leave their parents more time for work. Which is more than you can say for golfers.

IT WAS the wedding of the year. All over the world hearts broke as Brad Pitt wed Jennifer Aniston in a ceremony that is said to have cost £600,000, but that's before they've sold the pictures for £1.2m.

Security cost £60,000. News agencies were sent a seven page fax warning them to keep away, all the guests - even Hollywood greats had to produce ID and workmen were frisked for cameras. All very impressive.

But on the same day, we were at the wedding of colleagues Nigel Burton and Jane Whitfield. By Hollywood standards a much more modest affair. Morritt Arms rather than Malibu. No wedding stage, security guards or £35,000 dress. But the sun shone, the bride looked lovely, the bridegroom besotted, the family did us proud and little children danced in the garden to the jazz band.

The Pitt-Aniston wedding might have cost a fortune, but I doubt very much if it would have been any happier than Nigel and Jane's. Or any of the other "ordinary" weddings last weekend.

GOOD news for teachers and students, headteachers will have more power to exclude disruptive pupils, leaving everyone else to get on with work in peace.

But once those disrupted pupils have been excluded, what happens to them? The chances are they'll get a few hours a week home tuition, if they're lucky, and the rest of the time they'll be free to roam the streets, and cause all the sort of trouble that unruly children with time on their hands manage to find.

If we exclude children from school - and we must occasionally - then we have to find somewhere else to put them. Somewhere where they can be prevented from getting into even more trouble.

A NEW religious law in Egypt means smoking is sufficient grounds for divorce. Sounds fair.

Maybe it could even be broadened a little, to include things like wearing smelly socks, eating too much garlic or rolling home in the early hours warbling football songs. The Egyptians might just have a winner.

OH DEAR, the Blairs have taken a huff. Just because someone took some nice pictures of baby Leo on the way to his Christening, they've said they won't - can't, shan't , WON'T - pose for pre holiday pics. So there.

Well yes, I'm heartbroken too.

It's probably a very sensible decision. Just when the rest of us are setting out for another day trip in the rain, do we really want to see a jolly picture of the grinning Blairs off to some plush place in the sun, lent, yet again, by a friend? At least we'll be spared that bit of salt in the wounds of this lousy summer