I like kids as well, and I try to be tolerant, but I do wish there were preferred seating areas for families with small kids. Alternatively, perhaps a code (which the courts would probably deem discriminatory) could indicate where small kids were seated so that an appropriate seat request could be made.

On SQ 8198, CHC-SIN, 1 Jan, there were three families with 6 kids packed into 3 center rows. Two kids proved to be catalysts for the rest. Suffice it to say that the experience was slightly less than pleasant for those seated nearby on the 10+ flight. Several of us wished that we could have known about the proximity of the families a priori and thus request different seating. On a quick LH trip over the next two days BKK-FRA-BKK, there was only one screamer on each flight, but gratefully displaced from my location by over 5 rows each time. On Fri, 5 Jan, on UA from BKK-NRT it was peacefully quiet, but on UA 800 NRT-JFK a family sat across the aisle, upstairs business, two and three rows ahead of me (I was in 15G). The mother did nothing to alleviate a fight, which lasted from mid-Aleutians to nearly Lake Ontario, between her teenage son and young daughter.

Regarding strategies, I just move if I can. On the last flight, I was so tired that I just popped in my Sony NC-10 noise-canceling headphones, and collapsed in my seat... too lazy to move downstairs. However, on the preceding flights I looked for reasonable alternative seating to no avail. In the good old days, I would request the smoking section (I do not smoke) if I saw a bunch of kids in the departure area. Alas, that option has drifted away like smoke in a breeze...