Any of us who have traveled via air, either with kids in tow or without, or who even have read any sort of news lately are keenly aware that it's entirely possible that kids and airplanes don't mix. Toddlers getting thrown off planes? Check. Breastfeeding bru-ha-has? We've got those too. Disgruntled business travelers, or, really, anyone who doesn't like to sit strapped to a seat for 4 hours that's being constantly pummeled from behind by small feet? Yes, we've got those too.

As someone who has sat for hours in a plane on the tarmac awaiting liftoff with small kids in tow, desperately trying to entertain them and mete out the snacks, or who has shared The Very Last Seat on a flight home from Paris on a plane filled with Chilean card players with a squirmy toddler, or who has snagged the Two Last Seats and lied about my three-year-old's age to get home from Finland on a 10-hour flight filled with Polish people who swarmed the aisles and ignored the seatbelt signs, I know all about travel with children. And I tend to be more forgiving, I guess, of the inevitable wailing on descent and other behaviors exhibited by kids on planes. Hey, so they feel all claustrophobic and bored? Me too. Except I can deal with it better (barely).

So Southwest Airlines is apparently experimenting with a variety of boarding procedures involving families. Hey, that pre-boarding invitation is almost worth taking the kids along, just to have time to snag pillows and find room in the overhead bins and snicker privately at everyone else who comes lumbering onto the plane after you (TELL me you haven't been glad of getting on the plane first!). But one of the scenarios they are playing with is having certain rows on the planes set aside for families.

Whoa! Discrimination?  Or simply bowing to a need and filling it? Me, I love my kids, but I'm not sure I also want to be seated with YOUR kids, if you know what I mean.

Another scenario involves removing the pre-boarding perk. Um, hello?  Why? I can't for the life of me think why Southwest would consider making it MORE difficult and add to the pressure of getting car seats and wayward toddlers onto the plane while everyone else watched and rolls their eyes. Unless...it's to deter families from flying at all? Jumping to conclusions here? What do you think?