With many seasonal travelers taking to the skies over the holidays and being exposed to the latest trends in travel, it’s no wonder that the  subject of “baby ghettos” dominated the blogosphere this week. “Baby ghettos” describe the area at the back of a plane where some passengers with babies and toddlers say they are being placed. Secondary components to the discussion involve airlines breaking up families with children and seating the kids with strangers, as well as airlines that no longer let small children board early. Parents seated at the back of planes with other parents and children resent the segregation, while other travelers such as this NPR host seem to embrace the idea with glee. I vividly recall the stomach-churning horror I experienced the first time I watched a mother change a baby’s diaper on an airplane seat. Similarly, I recall the squirmy sensation of shame I felt when I tried to express the diaper horror to a friend with small children, and she sternly lectured me on the difficulties mothers endure when traveling by air. It’s true that as a childless couple, my husband and I instinctively grit our teeth whenever we find ourselves surrounded by others’ children while traveling. On a recent first-class flight, I witnessed first-hand a braying toddler who seemed to rattle everyone in the area except the mother. Everyone’s been subjected to the screaming, pungent, excreting children of strangers in close quarters, and it’s not an experience to be relished. Although there are days when I wonder if children are more poorly behaved than when I was a child, and I’ve also heard people argue that our impersonal culture has led to an unrealistic sense of entitlement to personal space in public areas; I think the larger issue is that holiday air travel has become so uncomfortable for everyone over the past 10 years that adults and children are driven to wailing like babies. — Patty Mahlon, director of digital media