Easy Ways to Entertain Your Kid on a Four-Hour Layover
Don’t be fooled. It’s never easy
I used to love flying. LOVED it. The exhilarating weightlessness in your chest when the plane lifts off. The free drink and snack. Two or four or ten hours in which I had nothing to do but read or watch TV. The anticipation of a new place, or an old place to see friends or family.
Then I had a kid.
And suddenly, nothing was fun anymore. Every single part of it was a major hassle. Getting a stroller and diaper bag and baby through security. Dragging a car seat onto the airplane (weirdly, we were usually the only parents we saw do this). Entertaining a baby or a toddler for two or four or ten hours in a tight spot with almost nowhere to walk. Virtually every trip was to go visit family, so, while I love both of our families, it does lack a certain sense of excited anticipation.
My extended family lives in a rural part of the middle of the US, which means direct flights are not an option. So we either have to choose a layover somewhere, or fly to a somewhat distant airport and then endure a long drive. The long drive often feels more miserable than a layover and another short flight.
On one especially heinous four-hour drive, I had assumed my son would sleep for the duration since the whole drive was well after his bedtime. I assumed wrong. He was miserably, crankily awake, and my husband wasn’t with us. Grandma drove while I sat in the back holding his hand, basically begging him to close his eyes.
There were some not-terrible things. When he was under 2, we never paid for a seat, assuming he would sleep in a carrier on our chests. And in nearly every flight, we asked at the check-in desk if we could be seated with an empty middle seat between us if one was available, and almost all of them were happy to shuffle us around. Out of 6 flights total, we only had to do one holding him.
We were good at planning our flights at nap time, and very often he would fall asleep during takeoff and sleep for most of one flight. We constantly got compliments on what a good baby he was. A sleeping baby is always a good baby.
On our first flight with him, at six months old, he wouldn’t settle down (as babies do). A flight attendant came and asked if she could help. “No, we got it,” we said in that weary parent way. She held out her arms, “Oh, I do this all the time. I love babies.” We handed him over and she bounced him happily up and down the aisle. We were so relieved and joyful that we ordered a cocktail each, totally forgetting I had taken cold medicine before lift off. I nearly fainted on the way to the bathroom later. Still worth it.
But now that he’s a walking, talking, medium-sized kid (five and a half), the game changes. In most ways it’s easier: he’s happy to zone out with kid shows and tablet games for an hour or two. But then once the boredom sets in, it is aggressive. He whines. He kicks the seat in front of him. He growls in anger. He is deeply uninterested in coloring or reading. He has maxed out on snacks.
This time around we have a four-hour layover sandwiched between two and a half-hour flights on each side. It’s a huge amount of time to fill, but at least we get to move. Here are my best suggestions for getting through it:
- Research your food options. Wandering around to see what piques your interest is not going to fly with a whiny hungry kid. You need to have a destination and move towards it decisively. If you have to change terminals to do it, just hope the train ride is enough to entertain him.
- Ride the train, even if you don’t need to. Most airports large enough to layover in will have some sort of transport between terminals. Denver has a pretty cool underground one. San Francisco has an air train, up high on rails, that takes you all the way out to long-term parking with lovely views.
3. Find the kids' play area. Virtually every airport of any decent size has one. I can tell you they are usually geared towards toddlers and are small and over-lit. The one in Las Vegas is aggressively sad and shoved so far down a corridor that you’ll wonder if you’re being trolled. It won’t matter. Your kid of any age will be so happy to see something to climb on that they’ll run towards it like a desert oasis.
4. Moving walkways and escalators are amusement park rides now. Go up and down as many times as they want. Let them ride a moving walkway all by themselves while you either jog beside them (much to their amusement) or wait halfway down to high-five. This also gets you some exercise.
5. Have some hidden toys. This requires a little pre-planning. In the months before a flight, stash away a toy they really like but might not even notice is missing. Bring that out in your most desperate hour. It’s like a brand-new toy, but without having to actually purchase anything or make them feel like they’re getting rewarded for being grumpy. It’s just a toy of theirs you happen to have, right?
6. If you have a partner, switch off. Like, fully switch off. Go away and sit at a different gate with headphones on or take a long, brisk walk or browse the magazine racks or find a twenty-minute massage place. As in regular life, everyone will be happier.
At the end of the day, as with most things kid-related, you‘ll just get through it. You might wind up buying ice cream when you didn’t mean to, or pulling up that show they always want to watch on your laptop, even though you think it’s too old for them. It’s all fine. Seeing grandma is worth it. Getting back home again is even better.
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