Telltale whimpers of frustration that crescendo into plaintive cries, followed by ruddy-faced, full-throated screaming in public – this is the drama that every exhausted parent hopes, but fails, to avoid at some point in their young child’s life.

When I was a new parent, I prayed that if my child were to kick up a fuss at a restaurant, it would be at the end of the meal – not at the start when a delicious-looking steak and a glass of wine, both quite impossible to consume with a screaming baby in one arm, had just been served to me.