“Daddy! Make the noise stop! It’s hurting my ears!” Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.

“Look at the beautiful sky, everyone. It’s glowing. It’s almost… luminous! What an amazing sunrise. We are so lucky to see this. I’m sorry my angel, I can’t make the noise stop”. Ding. Ding.

“The exclamation flashing on and off means it’s shouting at you.”

“That’s right, son. There’s something wrong with the car. Is that a pair of scissors? In the car? Are you still crafting?” Ding. Ding.

“Yeah. Are the doors open again, Daddy?” Ding. Ding.

“No. That would be a doors open symbol.” Ding. Ding.

“Is it seat belts?” Ding. Ding.

“No. That would be a seat belt symbol.” Ding. Ding.

“Stop the car and see what’s wrong, Daddy!” Ding. Ding.

“We can’t stop right now, my angel, because we’re late for school.” Ding. Ding.

“It’s making my ears hurt, Daddy. Is the car going to explode?” Ding. Ding.

“No. It just means there might be something wrong with the engine that will be really expensive to fix, which is nice because it’s nearly Christmas. It might have to go to the garage to get fixed. I don’t know when exactly because we basically always need it. But don’t worry, I’m sure it’s not going to explode. It just makes that loud noise to make sure we know something’s wrong. Which is nice, because I was just thinking I wish the school run was a bit more stressful.” Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.

“Make the noise stop, Daddy. It’s hurting my ears!”

“I can’t make it stop, my angel. It… Oh. It’s stopped. We’re here, kids. Come on. Out of the car.”

“Look, Daddy. I made a snowflake. What was wrong with the car, Daddy?”

“I don’t know, son. I’m sure we’ll find out.”