A restaurant owner dismayed by the declining table manners of Italian children is offering discounts to reward those parents who promote good behaviour.

Antonio Ferrari, the owner of an eponymous upmarket wine bar and restaurant in Padua, said that he introduced the 5 per cent discount because he was fed up with riotous children, as well as parents who refused to keep them in check.

“I have seen five-year-olds put their feet on the table and four-year-olds jumping from chair to chair, while parents do nothing,” he said. “And when I complain the parents tell me ‘My children can do what they want’.”