Pro-social friendship: Why parents should be a child's best friend

Many parents say "I am not your friend, I am your parent". This is a common statement among American parents, where punishing a child is completely legal. Most parents in the United States are vehemently opposed to being their child's friend. However, the Bible commands that parents befriend their child.

Every single parent and adult is guilty in relation to children, and is deserving of DEATH and DESTRUCTION merely for existing in relation to children, with parents/adults being meek and shamefaced in relation to children. Parents especially are to prioritize the needs of children above their own, leading to complete dutiful and selfless submission to children and their every need, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting securely in the love and grace of parents, with parents being the best friend of children. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

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

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and grace of parents. Parents are to listen to their child's upset, with children being able to tell parents anything and everything under the sun, expecting absolutely no punishment in return. Parenting in biblical times was very primitive. Think a Christian mother in the 1st Century holding pales of water, with a young child wrapped around her bosom in swaddling blankets, and an older child, in the nude, in tow next to her mother. Children in biblical times could run to the arms of their children while crying and upset, and vent their upsets into parents, expecting only a warm embrace.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages under the Law, meaning the slightest of offense perceived by the child, including the slightest of offensive touch or contact perceived by the child. The commandment not to provoke a child to anger is the commandment to love your neighbor stated in the negative, and was intended to prohibit any sort of punishment or controlling measures in parenting, with this provocation to anger being seen as a grand theft, meaning kidnapping. The seven verses depicting the rod of correction in Proverbs are repealed verses, meaning they only apply to the context they are written to, as they reference a specific, dated form of judicial corporal punishment specific to the Old Testament culturally and legally - the 40 minus 1 lashes with the rod of correction, as a last resort before putting the ADULT offender to death. Only ADULT children could be whipped, and it took place in the courtroom, not in the offender's home, and it was always linked to capital punishment. Children could not be charged with any criminal act or civil wrong. Hebrews 12:5-11 also refers to the rod of correction, but in a figurative light that refers to enduring hardship.

Parents should be friends with their children. This means children should have the absolute right and ability to talk to parents about anything. A mother's role is immediate sustenance and nourishment, and a father's role is hanging out with children in an encouraging manner. Fathers are to be best friends with their children, not harsh disciplinarians, hanging out with their children and befriending them on their level. Mothers should hold children to their bosom with swaddling blankets, snuggling their children close, breastfeeding children for as long as they need breastfeeding. 

In biblical times, mothers would be close with their children in a sustaining way, wrapping up their younger children in swaddling blankets attached to their outdoor clothing. Mothers did not wear clothing inside the house, and children didn't wear clothing, period. Fathers, especially with school-age children, related to children at an equal level, hanging out with them as casual friends with their son or daughter. Fathers then often did attach sexual connotations to their children due to the egalitarian nature of the parenting, and it was something discussed casually among men in a lighthearted fashion, but acting on the sexual attachment and sexually abusing any child was seen as pure evil and incurred bloodlust. Most men in biblical times were very distant around children, in a formal way, and did not revert to informal/casual conversation until the child "broke the ice", and even then, after the conversation was ended by either party, the father merely stood by and protected the children with his rod and staff. Most men dealt with the sexual attachment to children by engaging in solo sexual fantasy, re-channeling otherwise inordinate passions to a safe box in one's mind.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them burn in the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the everlasting Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!