People sleeping airport Abu Dhabi
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.

Bleary Passengers Versus Tireless Children Overnight at an Airport

hether by choice or faced with no other choice, there are passengers who wind up spending their time overnight at an airport while waiting to catch their next flight. Sometimes a hotel is not feasible for many reasons — distance, cost, too little time between flights, avoiding having to go through an airport security checkpoint again are four of those reasons — and sometimes the only way to catch a few winks of sleep is to nap in a chair inside of the secure area of the airport.

There are more than enough impediments to getting a good night’s sleep inside of an airport — including airport employees working overnight; the air conditioning being too cold; the typical lack of comfort of the chairs themselves; the snoring of fellow passengers…

…but what happens when there are children running around laughing and yelling — or crying and screaming — to the chagrin of those sleepy passengers?

I witnessed both within the past few hours during a layover — no, I am working, not sleeping — and the parents did little to control their children. “Stop,” one parent said in a half-hearted tone which was barely audible as her two children ran uncontrolled all over the place.

One by one, the looks of death appeared across the faces of people who were awakened from their brief slumber and darted at the children — and especially at the parents.

I suppose that if the passengers really need their sleep, they should seek out a hotel room and pay for it — or, the parents should do what they can to control their children in order to minimize any disturbance to fellow passengers…

…but despite those and other solutions, there is a face-off of sorts: the bleary passengers versus tireless children who are over-energized and ready to go. Who wins?

What are your thoughts?

  1. While I agree that parents have a duty to ensure their children behave appropriately in their surroundings (ie what is acceptable in a playground isn’t at a library, place or worship or museum) if you want peace and quiet go book a hotel. Although it would be nice to be left alone in a quiet corner of an airport for a few hours of sleep, there are designated places that give you a bed, shower and privacy in exchange for money.

    1. The funny part which I intentionally left out of the article, Brandon, is that there was a place containing sleeping pods right across the hall from where I witnessed what I wrote, for which one can pay an hourly rate.

      Can’t get more convenient than that — yet no one decided that sleep was that important to patronize that service…

  2. The sleepers win. They are not obliged to listen to kids run and scream in an airport. I know the secure area of an airport isn’t a hotel, but it isn’t a playground either. The needs of the many (passengers) outweigh the needs of the one (family). The parents need to get out the tablet, read to them, play a game of counting floor or ceiling tiles if you have to, something other than letting them run wild in the airport.

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