The news that in Sweden you are statutorily obliged to invite even your most bitter enemy to your party is the sort of news that is music to the ears only of Hillary Clinton when she is pressing Barack Obama to add her as vice-presidential nominee to his ticket for the White House.

But for most children, who are happy to have some respite from their playground tormentors when they are celebrating their birthday, inviting adversaries to the party might seem to be turning the other cheek to the point of making their head spin full circle.

The etiquette of children’s parties has slowly been getting out of hand.

Once children were happy with Marmite sandwiches and Jaffa cakes at their parties. Now, if you have not hired Gordon Ramsay to do the catering you are likely to be hearing from lawyers.

Musical chairs? Only if the chairs are arranged in a private suite at Claridge’s and the music is being provided by Amy Winehouse.

But granting to children rights that even adults in many countries have yet to enjoy might be putting age before duty – namely, the duty of adults to steer children wisely into adulthood and not merely to see every infringement of their freedoms as a brutal assault on the human rights of the infant. We grow into our rights, just as we grow into wearing long trousers.

Just as a child gets a say in where its parents choose to live only if it is chipping in with the mortgage payments, a child gets to complain about, for example, what websites its parents surf on their computer only when the child is the one who is paying for the computer.

Every child deserves to be listened to but does not necessarily deserve to have every one of his wishes heard.

Even Hillary Clinton has not managed that.