Attachment parenting in the Bible: Why it is a command

Many parents believe that the Bible commands them to punish and control their children. This is a common misconception in American parents, with this country being a Christian nation founded on Judeo-Christian family values.

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, shutting up to allow them to speak, only speaking to them at their cue and consent, otherwise being silent and ashamed of one's adult status. Parents especially are to esteem their child's needs above their own, putting children first, and themselves last, leading to dutiful and selfless submission to children and their every vulnerable need, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting in the love and good works of parents. 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 care of parents, owing absolutely nothing in return to parents, thereby forming a secure bond with one's child. Attachment parenting was the norm in biblical times. Think a mother holding pales of water, with a young child wrapped up in swaddling blankets next to the mother's bosom, with an older child in tow next to her mother, with the mother gathering water to cook food with, and to drink. That was how parenting went then.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages, meaning the slightest of offense perceived by the child, including the slightest of offensive touch or contact perceived by the child. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul to lift up the Law on the issue of punishing and controlling children. The punishment of children carried severe penalties under the Law, and was seen as deserving of death, even if Christ spared the offender of his life in the Early Church. The rod verses in both Proverbs and Hebrews do not refer to spanking, but to judicial corporal punishment, namely the 40 minus 1 lashes, administered in the Old Testament to an ADULT child convicted of a capital offense in a court of law, as a last warning before being put to death. The punishment was never imposed on a minor child, and implementation of the punishment was consistent across age groups of adults. Children could not be held culpable for any criminal act or civil wrong they committed under the Law, meaning their parents simply apologized in court for their child's mischief. 

Attachment parenting was the norm in ancient Israel and adjoining churches, and the established norm at that. Children as old as age 3 were breastfed (sometimes even older!), with children in Early Christian circles staying in intense, constant closeness with their mothers until age 6, when fathers played a more involved role in the child's life, befriending their children, doting on them at their level, showing chivalrous affection to daughters, and instructing sons in the Law and Scripture. Fathers usually held a parental sexual attachment to a child, which made fathers passive when around their own child.

Young children remained close to their mothers, and never left her side until age 6. Children over age 6 intermittently clung to parents while, at other times, playing with other children, usually siblings or extended family. Parents intervened in the case of overt sexual penetration, but many children's games of the time had sexual undertones, with the most overt of games tolerated by adults being "marriage". However, most children instead embraced instead of engaged in sexual intercourse. Even high-risk play was allowed in the Early Church, and that is the lesson a parent can take from this context.

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 fire and burning sulfur, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!