Carol Cain, at her joyful best. (Photo by @TravelingLatina)

Many of my travel writer friends are wiser and more eloquent than I, and Carol Cain, of Girl Gone Travel (and a fellow Expedia Viewfinder blogger), is one of them.

Earlier today, Carol took time from her busy travel schedule to dash off a beautiful post for an inside baseball-type Facebook group for fellow travel bloggers. The piece moved me so much, I had to share it (verbatim) here:

“On the flight over here I tried to take a nap but a crying baby made it impossible. I could’ve thrown a tantrum. I could’ve judged the parents and criticized the system that allows crying babies on flights…near me. There’s no denying I was exhausted as I’ve been traveling tons and had a rough morning of my own. So I turned around to look at the young parents who immediately noticed my looking and started to apologize in union. Yes, they were apologizing to me for their crying baby. I smiled and asked about their little girl. “What’s her name?” “How old is she?” “She’s precious,” I told them, “A beautiful child,” I said. The mom relaxed a bit. The dad sighed. The mom turned her still crying baby to face me. I started talking to her and gently caressed her little hand. She immediately stopped crying and smiled. “She’s mesmerized by you,” the mom said. It took a moment, just a small gesture of kindness. The parents still had their hands full but the baby didn’t cry again after that. Just be kind.”

I thought this travel tip was particularly fitting in the wake of the news that yet another airline has decided to offer child-free seating (this time the offender is Singapore’s Scoot Airlines; if you’re curious about my outrage on this subject, read my posts for Parenting here and here). The lesson: It’s not about the kids, people. It’s about the grownups. And all of us can be a bit nicer from time to time.

What’s your take on the trend of airlines offering child-free seating?