“I get no respect in this house.”

That’s the phrase I use most in my home, when I’m repeatedly ignored and verbally insulted by my teenage daughters. “I would never have spoken to my parents like that – I’d have been thrown out of the house,” I say.

They speak just as disrespectfully to my husband, in a manner that my dad would never have tolerated. The furthest I’d go by way of challenging his authority was the odd raising of my eyes as he told me off (and that would send him into a rage).

I would never have used gangster rap language on him, while squaring up in an intimidatory fashion.

The disturbing thing is, according to other parents, this is quite common.

Lack of respect isn’t only rife within families, it is universal. Only last week, while discussing problem teens with my friend, we both commented upon how our children feel far more relaxed with adults than we did.

If I went to a friend’s house I would always call their parents Mr and Mrs. I would never have breezed in and said: “Hi Jean, what are we having for tea?”

And it would be even more unthinkable to call their father by his first name. Imagine: “Thanks for the lift home Brian.” It’s enough to make you cringe.

Nowadays, children use your first name from a young age. I can’t think of one occasion when my daughters’ friends have called me Mrs Mead. It has always been Helen.” Even ‘Hi’, which is commonly used, is too casual.

It’s fine if you’re living in a teenage surfing community, but in child-adult relationships, ‘hello’ is far more polite.

You get it from other adults – ones you have never met – too. I got a bright and breezy ‘Hi’ the other day when I rang an insurance firm for a quote. It just doesn’t sound right.

More and more Britons are becoming annoyed by this lack of respect and over-familiarity from others.

The survey of 1,000 adults by the internet search engine Ask Jeeves found that the over-60s in particular were most annoyed with strangers using their first name.

While obviously better than outright hostility, all this casual chumminess is part of the disrespectful child problem. Youngsters grow up with too familiar an approach to adults.

I’m not saying they should be made to stand to attention, but I think they need to be aware of the age difference and our greater life experience.

“What do you know?” I hear from my daughters. “A lot more than you.” I say. But it falls on deaf ears. We are far too soft, we need to reclaim our authority. But I have an awful feeling it may be too late.