Formula Of The Week (2)

Having a child in the back of the car can be trying at the best of times, especially when they decide to throw a tantrum. Fortunately, help is at hand to help parents predict when and how to mitigate a fretful child.

According to research carried out by Dr James Hind of Nottingham Trent University, the danger point for a tantrum is seventy minutes into the journey. Providing the child with some form of entertainment (E) for, say half an hour, will delay the tantrum by fifteen minutes and a further fifteen minutes can be bought by providing them with food (F). However, having other youngsters in the car (S) reduces the tantrum-free window by ten minutes.

For the mathematically inclined, he has encapsulated it all into a nifty formula, T = 70 + 0.5E + 15F – 10S, which might be worth pinning to the dashboard. Otherwise, it is worth remembering that the tantrum-free duration of your journey is about as long as you get before having to recharge your electric car.

He also informs us that the average child will first pose the query “are we there yet?” 32 minutes into a journey and will ask the very pertinent question four times per journey.

What would we do without academics?