Are you kidding?? I don't care if it's the toilet seat, the toilet lid or the floor, airplane lavatories are incredibly unsanitary places--yes, far worse than the seat you're sitting on and, given the high traffic level, far worse than airport bathrooms as well.

OK--I don't want to sound harsh here, but perhaps you are the one who shouldn't be flying if your tender sensibilities are so easily offended?

In a perfect world, airplanes would be family friendly, with separate, private areas for breast-feeding and/or changing an infant and, therefore, you wouldn't have to be exposed to this, but (surprise!) this isn't a perfect world. Infants are people too and there are valid reasons why parents with infants sometimes need to fly. I suspect they aren't any more wild about the idea than you are about having them sit next to you. Traveling with young children is a huge hassle from beginning to end.

Come on folks. I think we all agree that this particular mother didn't handle the situation as well as she could have, but let's not turn this into an attack on traveling parents/babies in general. Perhaps a little more empathy and understanding is in order? I'm not suggesting all babies should be changed on airplane seats but why is your need not to smell poop for 5 minutes more important than a parent/infant's need for an appropriate and sanitary changing area? If there *is* a more appropriate area, the parent should obviously try to use it but at the same time, wouldn't it be nice if we could all be a little more tolerant and try to think about a child's needs before our own minor annoyances?