HedgeFundFlyer, I couldn't have said it better myself.

I will never forget the kindness of the stranger sitting across from me on an SFO-EWR flight when my son was about five months old. He was quiet for most of the flight, but there was bad weather blocking all departures in Newark and we had to sit on the ground for almost an hour after we landed because our gate was occupied. After already having been on that plane for close to six hours, my son totally lost it and screamed the entire time. We tried feeding him, soothing him, playing with him... nothing we could do was helping; the only thing that would have worked was to walk up and down the aisles, but we were required to stay seated.

I felt so helpless and awful and knew we had to be disturbing everyone around us, and at one point apologized to those seated around us. The woman said, "Don't worry about it; he's just expressing the exact same frustration that the rest of us are feeling."

It was a miserable hour for me; I'm sure it was a miserable hour for everyone in earshot. But the fact that that woman dealt with it gracefully and didn't choose to make me feel even worse about the situation made it a whole lot better.