Pro-social confessor: Why children should be able to admit when they have done wrong (on their own)

Many parents believe in punishing children in order to "keep them well-behaved". It is seen as a monitoring of a child. There is a proper way to monitor a child, and it requires nothing more than a listening ear. Pro-social confessor holds that children should see talking to parents as going to confession, in the Roman Catholic tense. 

The doctrine of mutual surrender states in Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things, as this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they become discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to trust in parents. Replace "obey" with "trust" and you roughly come to a better translation. However, this is a special form of trust that is borne out of maternal warmth and sustenance. This means trust in terms of baring your soul to your parents, sharing anything and everything with them, ensuring open and honest communication, to the point of a child treating parents as a confessor, sharing their deepest and darkest secrets with parents and parents alone. Usually, children then surrender to parents on their own, running to the loving arms of parent, following the example of parents ultimately. The idea is to motivate children to turn themselves in on their own by being trustworthy with a secret. Children should be able to trust in parents enough to tell them that they did something very wrong, such as stealing or pilfering, and expect no punishment in return. Parenting was attachment-based in ancient Hebrew culture, including the Early Church, with children's cries for sustenance and nourishment striking reverent terror and fear in parents. Children slept next to mothers until adulthood in the Early Church, and children up until age 3 were breastfed, with breastfeeding being allowed everywhere.

Punishment breaks down communication, and halts cooperation between parent and child. The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to provocations to anger, meaning all offenses against children, with "offense" defined as the slightest of offenses perceived by a child based on parental entitlement. This was intended by the Apostle Paul as well as the context itself to prohibit all forms of punishment and control in parents, including spanking, corporal punishment, time-out, or loss of privileges, in the modern context. The broader Greco-Roman culture endorsed spanking and corporal punishment as a means to deal with misbehavior in a child, and this was enshrined in the Roman legal doctrine of patrias potestas or "power to the father" or "power to the parent" in today's post-feminist world. Jewish law in the Early Church did not recognize this legal defense. Paul recommended by way of parenting manual a form of attachment parenting based on the Living Example of Christ. Children tend not to follow examples that come down on them with punishment and violence.

A confessor, in a church setting, is who you go to in the church, usually a deacon, about something you did wrong that is weighing on you. Children have that baggage as well, and it shouldn't take a pastor or priest to unload. The message from Christian parents when a child admits to doing something wrong should be a calm and reassuring "you're forgiven". An adult believer can confess in Christ through a pastor. A child is not yet part of the church in full, and will not be until adulthood, and so parents should be their confessor, and should be there to listen to whatever their child has on their mind. Eventually, something will come up that they did wrong, and then you just forgive them, with them having no price to pay for parental forgiveness. This is Christian grace at the deepest.

Let the depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger burn in the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death, which is Satan's final resting place! Let the parents descend into a Hell of fire and torment, with God's Wrath tormenting the evildoing parents forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!