We fly off tomorrow on a three-flight, 24-hour odyssey back to Sweden. We do this sort of thing often enough. And I have just two words for airports worldwide: play area.
We stumbled upon on our first play area in Salt Lake City a few years ago, and it was like a gift from the heavens, with a big choir singing and everything. Since then, we discovered a shabby one in Chicago, which likely saved us and hundreds of people on a series of airplanes from a toddler meltdown.
Seriously, why does not every airport have play areas? All people do is complain about small kids on planes. Why not give them a place to have fun before they get on board. Why not get them out of the waiting areas?
A few weeks ago, in Stockholm, E and I wondered why the Stockholm airport had no play area. It seemed thoughtless and odd.
Then we found this, based on the work of a beloved early 20th-century children’s book illustrator Elsa Beskow:


Seriously, you could charge for this collaboration with Junibacken, a cool children’s museum in Stockholm, which opened in 2011. It could be an attraction. We might come early next time around.
Why is this sort of thing so hard?
Let us play, let us play, let us play.
Tags: airports, arlanda, children's literature, Daddy, elsa beskow, fatherhood, junibacken, parenting, Stockholm, travel