Always an interesting topic. I personally love babies and children, it's their rude, selfish parents I sometimes have problems with. Some of my worst experiences on planes involve being seated near children whose parents let them run rampant. One of my best experiences last year was being seated next to a charming, well-behaved young girl of about 9 who taught me all about Pokemon.

I'll give anyone who wants to travel with their kids the benefit of the doubt for trying their best to keep their kids in line and to make their babies comfortable. For those parents who could care less about the comfort of everyone around them, well, I can deal with it for a few hours, but I really feel sorry for their kids.

For those here who say that parents with kids, including babies, don't have the right to fly in first, I completely disagree. It's not some exclusive club. They have as much right to be there as you do. But just as I wish no one were rude on a plane, whether in first or coach, I would hope that those who travel with their children would try their best to make the cabin a pleasant as possible place for their fellow travellers.

FoothillFlyer: Those noise-cancelling headphones deaden the background noise, but not other kinds of sound. They can make other noise going on even more irritating than it normally would be. A couple of months ago, I was seated in front of a couple (of adults) who were carrying on a loud conversation for two solid hours, non-stop, in the two seats behind me. My Bose noise cancelling headphones made it worse!