Select nested objects by zoom level

I have many smaller objects grouped into swimlanes so that I can move the whole mess by just moving the swimlane container. However when I drag select multiple swimlane objects all the objects in each container are also selected. That prevents the object organization tool tip from working. (The thing that pops up to allow one to organize a selection of similar objects)

It would be nice if drag selection of containers with children would only select the containers when the details of the child objects are obscured by zoom level so that I can organize the containers with the distribute/align widget.