Turning Dead Time into the Best Part of the Day

If you’ve ever watched Bluey with a grandkid, you’ve noticed something. The best episodes aren’t about trips to theme parks or big family holidays. They’re about a dad pretending to be asleep on the couch while his kids try to wake him. A mom playing a game in the backyard. A boring errand that turns into something.

The show understands something that’s easy to forget: the material is already there. You don’t need a plan. You need to show up to what’s actually happening.

Here’s how to do that with grandkids.

The Car Ride

Car rides are the most underused grandparent-grandkid time there is. You’re both trapped. There’s nowhere else to be. The phone reception is usually bad. This is actually ideal.

The License Plate Game (upgraded)

The classic: spot license plates from as many states as possible. The upgrade: you have to say something true about each state you find. Indiana — flat, corn, the Indy 500. Montana — big sky, bears, you’ve never been. It becomes a geography lesson that nobody asked for and everyone participates in.

20 Questions, but One Rule

They think of something. You ask yes/no questions. The rule: it has to be something that exists in real life, not a character or a show. “Is it alive?” “Is it bigger than this car?” You’ll get to things like a specific chair in your kitchen. That’s the good version.

The Storytelling Relay

One person starts a story: “Once there was a grandma who found a door in her kitchen that definitely wasn’t there yesterday.” The next person adds one sentence. Keep going. The story will get weird. That’s correct.

Spot It

Pick something common — a red barn, a dog, a McDonald’s, a blue car, a church steeple. First person to spot it calls it. This works from age 3 to adult. The road keeps giving you new things.

The Waiting Room

Doctor’s offices. Restaurant waits. The lobby while one person uses the bathroom. These gaps are 10 minutes long and feel eternal to a five-year-old.

Always have one of these in your bag or phone:

The Drawing Game

You draw something with one missing piece — a face with no mouth, a house with no door, a dog with no tail. They complete it. Then they draw one for you.

”I Spy” With Rules

Standard I Spy is over in 30 seconds. Extend it: the thing has to be a color and a shape (“I spy something round and blue”). Or: it has to be something the other person will have to really look for.

The Question Game

You take turns asking each other questions. No wrong answers. Real questions, not quiz questions. What’s your favorite smell? If you could change one rule at school, what would it be? If you could eat only one food forever, what would it be and why?

Grandkids ask surprisingly good questions when you ask them first.

Thumb War Tournament

Self-explanatory. Best of five. The loser has to say something nice about the winner.

The Long Lunch

Sometimes you’re at a restaurant and the food is taking 25 minutes and there’s nothing to do.

Sugar Packet Architecture

Build something with sugar packets, creamer cups, and straw wrappers. Set a time limit. Judge each other’s.

Pick a meal for each person at the table — something you think they’d actually order. Then reveal. Argue about whether you were right.

Story From Three Words

Each person picks one word. Use all three words to tell the tiniest story possible. “Dragon. Sandwich. Tuesday.” Someone goes first.

The Silence Game

See who can be quiet the longest. This one has obvious appeal for tired grandparents. It also teaches kids something about patience, though they’d never describe it that way.

The Backyard / The Yard / Outside Without a Plan

The Bluey approach to the backyard: the game is whatever you say it is. The cardboard box is a spaceship. The garden hose is a dragon. Grandma is a sleeping giant who wakes up when you make too much noise.

Backyard Olympics

Invent four events. Run them. Award imaginary medals. Good events: jumping as far as you can from a standing start, throwing a ball to hit a target (a tree, a bucket), how long you can balance on one foot, fastest zigzag through a set of sticks.

Nature Detective

Give them a mission: find something smooth, something rough, something living, something dead, something that’s two different colors, something that smells like something else. Bring it all back and show what you found.

Build Something

Sticks, rocks, leaves — make a fort, a fairy house, a dam across a puddle. The goal is construction, not result. A three-year-old who stacked rocks for 20 minutes has had a good afternoon.

Slow Down Walk

Walk somewhere you know well, but set a rule: you’re not allowed to walk past anything interesting without stopping to look at it. A crack in the sidewalk. A bug. A weird plant. A reflection in a puddle. The walk takes three times as long. That’s the point.

The Big Idea

The thread connecting all of these: you’re the one who makes it a game. The waiting room doesn’t become fun by itself. You decide it’s the Sugar Packet Architecture Championship.

Grandkids are good at pretend. Better than adults. They’re waiting for someone to go with them. That’s you.

The material is always there. A car ride, a wait, a backyard, a Tuesday. The question is whether you show up to it.

More at-home ideas: 15 Activities Using Stuff You Already Have | 5 Quiet Spots in Fairfield County