At the tail end of breakfast at a hotel in Lourdes, France, a man enters the room accompanied by a cacophony of glass-shattering screams – dumping his manic toddler a metre from my table before heading over to the cereal bar.

The toddler is in the throes of the biggest tantrum of his young life. His mouth is agape and his eyes are red wild. As his ribs contract for another round, I desperately grab two forks and march them like soldiers across my breakfast table. The toddler stops, stares, and is, almost magically, silenced.

Fairly early on, most parents learn that distraction is their friend. When a child is in the throes of despair, much solace can be gained by shifting