Appetite Studies: Self-Devourer

On transatlantic flights, it's often my luck to be sat adjacent or behind families with infants and toddlers. Tantrums, staring contests, ripping out my headphones, all normal and acceptable. In an effort to soothe myself, I’ll take the seat of my own mind. Watching and learning from the parenting. Some are force feeding airplane food until mental breakdown, and others allowing them to suck on a piece of cheese, watching an iPad indefinitely. I observe the blessed ones that get to play, running laps through the aisles, before coming home to the mother's arms, humming them gently to sleep. How could I aspire to handle a force of nature, so far removed from nature, enduring this cramped metal box in the sky?