Of those countries surveyed, children in Australia get bored the quickest at 23 minutes and children from New Zealand appear to be the most patient, with boredom kicking in only after 34 minutes.
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The study suggests that the average holiday car journey lasts around five hours. With so much time spent in the car, mums are resourceful at keeping their children amused.
74% make up games
52% offer treats and rewards
24% admitted that they lie about the estimated time of arrival to make the journey seem shorter.
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“Road trips are quite popular for Singaporeans so we think this study provides good insight,” says Valerie Cross, Public Relations Manager, TomTom Asia Pacific. “Whilst we can’t stop children from getting bored, we can make sure family journeys are the best they can be. From avoiding endless hours spent in traffic jams, to finding the best places to stop en route, TomTom is an ideal travel companion for a family road trip.”
Whilst 60% of mums said that “being together as a family” is the best part of a family trip, they also found it could be stressful. 41% thought that being in the car with their children is far more stressful than being in the office and 36% said they are likely to argue with their partner during the journey.
TomTom aims to make family journeys better by reducing the time spend in traffic and by offering driver-friendly content and services to help families make the most of their time together. For example, new TomTom Search & Go features help families find and navigate to recommended places such as restaurants and play areas along the way.
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Average time for children aged 2-8 years old to get bored on a long car journey:
Australia 23 minutes
UK 24 minutes
Spain 25 minutes
Italy 26 minutes
Netherlands 27 minutes
US 30 minutes
France 30 minutes
Germany 31 minutes
New Zealand 34 minutes
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The average time taken for children to get bored was calculated based on feedback from 3295 mums with children aged 2 to 8 years old and based on journeys over 30 minutes in length, where children had no form of amusement such as a DVD player in the car. This sample was chosen out of the total interviewed women.
The survey was commissioned by TomTom and conducted by the research company Ipsos MORI in the period 1-19th of March 2012 in the UK, USA, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain. A total of 4,113 women were surveyed with children ranging in age from 2 to 8 years old. An additional survey was carried out in New Zealand by HorizonResearch in the period 31 March to 3 April 2012. A total of 1,117 women were surveyed, of which 632 had children aged 2-8.
For further information, please visit www.tomtom.com