I'll jump in here, full disclosure, I know Steve but we haven't met really since 2003 :) I now live in another part of the country and have 2 small children, I have avoided long haul flights as long as possible because I beleive its not optimal for children of a certain age to be on those flights.

When children are very young they sleep a lot of the time, great for being on those flights :) When they hit about 2.5 years old its time to make the decision are coloring books, cartoons and stories going to be enough to keep them occupied or are they going to want to run about. Well the answer is they're going to need all of that to stop being really annoying.

The long and short of it is if you can what I'd call elective flying on long haul flights this is what i'd do but if you have family or whatever you need a long term plan for what the kids are going to do and how you are going to keep them from annoying all the others on board.

Everyone on that plane has a right to fly including the children, but everyone also has a responsility to try and get on with their fellow humans. Just for the record though sometimes at some point I am sure every parent has had that "oh back in your box moment", just remember we are more practised at this :) An a plane is a confined space