Try This Hack Next Time You’re Stuck On A Plane With Kids And No WIFI

One time, the thing you don’t want to happen happened to us: a 6-hour flight, no wif, broken TVs, 2 children under 3 years old. So fun, right? Needless to say, the flight was a bit stressful, and we didn’t know about this little hack at the time, so we just suffered. Now that I know this trick, I will never go back. It literally saved us on our trip to Turks & Caicos, where we ran into a similar issue. My husband came in like Superman and saved the day.

First, you will need a YouTube subscription. I honestly never understood why this was worth paying for because I have no problem just skipping through the ads. But this, my friends, is the reason why. With a YouTube subscription, you can download YouTube videos. They save to your YouTube library in the app, and you can access them even when you’re offline. This is amazing for two reasons. First, you can watch these videos in the app with no internet, and second, you can curate a list of shows for your kids that only you want them to watch. We don’t let our kids watch YouTube because they can navigate to shows we may not approve of, but this way they can only watch the shows you download. So you can download only educational shows or anything you deem appropriate for your child. If they have a tablet, you can do it on there and just plug in some headphones for them. But if it’s your phone, since none of these phones have headphone jacks anymore, you'll need to have Bluetooth headphones ready. That’s the only caveat. Other than that, it’s smooth sailing with your kids, all settled in with their favorite shows, thoroughly entertained on the plane, and hopefully tantrum-free. Godspeed.

Little bonus: This works for you too. You can download your favorite YouTubers videos or all those YouTube videos you meant to watch and watch them on the plane Wi-Fi free. I wouldn’t recommend this if you are sharing an account with your child though because they would be able to access your videos.