THE last time I flew long haul I was seated next to a harassed young mother travelling with both a toddler and a baby who appeared to be just a few weeks old.

Even as I walked down the aisle and could see them in the far distance, surrounded by nappy bags, toys and other kiddie paraphernalia, I knew that they were going to be sitting next to me and my heart sank.

I know exactly how it happened as well. The check-in staff will have spotted that I was a lone, female traveller of a certain age and will have assumed I probably have a family of my own and won't mind about the noise. Wrong.

Every time the baby started bawling the party attracted a new wave of headshaking and tutting from other passengers, even the ones sitting several rows away. I wouldn't have been human if I didn't feel enormous sympathy for the mother, she was trying her best in difficult circumstances.

However, all the pity I felt didn't come close to matching my overwhelming feeling of wishing the family weren't sitting so close to me and resenting the fact I'd paid Pound700 ($1194) for what was going to be 13 hours of hell.

So, when I read that one airline - Scoot, an offshoot of Singapore Airlines - have introduced a special 'quiet zone' from which under-12s are banned, I hoped that it would be a policy adopted by other carriers.

For Pound10 ($17) passengers on Scoot can travel in a special area of the aircraft safe in the knowledge that they won't be getting their seat kicked by little feet or covered in flying juice.

It's a luxury I'd be prepared to pay 10 times that amount for but the truth is I shouldn't have to. Surely those with the noisy children causing disruption should pay the higher penalty, not the people just wanting a quiet journey?

Predictably, the news has received a mixed reception with many appalled parents viewing it as yet another example of how little children are tolerated by our society and what a shame it is that we can't be more like the Italians or Spanish who all accept, and welcome children everywhere.

But what bleating parents fail to consider is that we now live in a country where a quarter of its population are childless so, if anything, we are far too tolerant and inclusive of children in some sections of our society - and, perhaps, rather than adapting our culture to include them we should be making moves to exclude them a little more

I am not speaking as somebody who hates kids. I have nieces, nephews and godchildren whom I adore. I would have liked to have my own children and have had to make my peace with the fact that it won't happen.

What I refuse to do, though, is accept that it's now my lot to have my quality of life diminished by having other people's families forced upon me.

I think soon restaurateurs will realise that the people who do splash the cash don't want to eat alongside grubby-faced children in highchairs.

And I can only hope that one day, children making a racket while adults try to have an afternoon glass of wine will be frowned upon as much as a chain-smoker blowing their fumes all over the place