A challenge that every parent with more than one child faces at some point is how to split something (let’s say a giant piece of cake) between the children. Here’s my optimized two-child solution to this problem, as well as solutions that don’t work.

First, what doesn’t work:

1. Splitting the cake yourself and choosing who gets which piece. Reason: regardless of how evenly you split the item, you risk being accused of favoring one child and giving them the bigger piece.
2. Having one kid split the cake and the other kid choosing which half to take. Reason: my kids quickly deduced that they are not yet steady-handed enough to cut things evenly, so neither ever wants to do the splitting.

So here’s the optimized solution, where by “optimized” I mean no one complains about unfairness (in expectation, kids can always complain of course).

1. I split the cake the best I can.
2. If the kids agree on who wants which piece, that split is implemented.
3. If there’s disagreement, I hold either one or two fingers behind my back. Each piece is assigned a number (1 or 2).
4. One child tries to guess the number. If they guess correctly, they get that piece. If they don’t guess correctly, they get the other piece.
5. The second child stands behind my back and acts as the enforcer to make sure I don’t change the number of fingers.

Overly complicated? Sure. But also kind of fun.

If you have any other solutions, let me know!