A guerrilla approach to flying with kids

"It broadens the mind."By taking their daughter to foreign countries since she was just a few months old, Coronado and her husband see Michelle, now age 7, developing a more global point of view. "She'll have a better appreciation of what makes each place and each people unique."When can a child fly?We know some of you will not bend on wanting child-free flights, resorts and lives. You remain convinced that kids will never be bearable as fellow travelers. That's OK.But you should know that there's just no blanket rule for when a child is old enough to be on the move. Sorry, baby haters. Some children are easygoing and can travel well at any age, and others are more temperamental and cannot.The temperament of the child and the parent are key in deciding if a child is ready to travel or not, says Yale Parenting Center director Alan Kazdin, a Yale University psychology professor and author of "The Everyday Parenting Toolkit."A mellow, organized parent can handle changes in flight plans and food and can teach those strategies to his or her child. The parent who gets frantic easily may not go with the flow when faced with travel delays, jet lag or even the "wrong" kind of chicken nuggets.

 "And that predisposition will be passed on to your child," says Kazdin.Do young children benefit from travel?There are those parents who've taught their children to behave in changing situations and who can adapt when weather, flights and different languages affect their plans. And they tell stories of trips abroad that benefited both parents and children.
Coronado thinks her daughter benefits from learning about new places and cultures before they travel, then seeing the reality. Before a 2012 trip to see family in Italy, Coronado borrowed books from the library to teach her daughter about the places they planned to see. Before a 2010 trip to the Philippines, Coronado told her daughter that she could ask her parents about anything she saw that she didn't understand."She can whisper her question to us and we'll try our best to answer her question," writes Coronado. When Michelle saw a homeless girl begging on the street, it turned into a quiet conversation about poverty, hunger and having a safe place to call home.That got Michelle, then age 5, excited about the trip.It can be hard for adults to behave as well.