Everyone at Fashion Week has a kid on their lap this year.

Maybe the pregnancy epidemic spread from Hollywood. Maybe the (much lamented among veteran attendees) decision to sell seats to the general public made people a little crazy, and they decided they needed to bring their children. All I know is, by the end of the day, I had pretty much decided that babies had replaced purse-dogs as this year's It accessory.

"Did you see those two twelve-year-old girls in the front row?" my standing-room partner-in-crime asked me during the Sass & Bide show. "Do people really want their daughters exposed to this? Don't they watch Ugly Betty?"

The front row thing irks, I'll be honest. Not like there's a snowball's chance in h-e-double-hockey-sticks that I would have gotten that seat if they'd stayed home and braided each other's hair, but it is annoying. For one thing, most of the kids I've seen so far look severely bored.

Also, there's the fact that it makes getting in and out of the shows that much more difficult. Kids move slower, and with less purpose, and also, I'm terrified I'll step on one. I'm just not used to anyone being shorter than me, so it's tough to remember to look out.

"It's like Chuck E. Cheese on a Saturday in here," my friend said in exasperation. The guy next to us, Dad of the girls we'd seen earlier, gave her a dirty look.

She was embarrassed, and looked apologetic. The thing is, she has kids. They're just, you know, at home. Playing video games and annoying their brothers, like kids are supposed to do.