Co-sleeping: The bread and butter of true biblical parenting

Many parents oppose co-sleeping for various reasons. My mother might oppose it, yet is driven to do it when I demand it - I am a care-dependent adult, and yes, I can be that immature. That goes to how natural it is to sleep peaceably next to a sleepless child, and then lull them to sleep. 

Co-sleeping is the most time-honored parenting method, meaning mothers have been sleeping next to their children to lull them to sleep since prehistoric times, and in biblical times, it was done until the child was an adult, when children shook off the care and protection of their parents, asserting their independence. That happens in all cases of co-sleeping, eventually. I stopped sleeping with my mother at age 16, at my initiative, not hers. Had I not had autism, I would have likely shook her off even earlier.

What drives co-sleeping? Christian love, meaning being convicted of your child's needs, putting children first, and parents last, to the point of dutiful and selfless submission to children and their every need, expecting absolutely nothing in return from children or others, with children resting safely and securely in parents. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in everything: 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. Attachment parenting was the established norm in Ancient Israel and the Early Church. Think a Christian mother holding pales of water, with a young child being wrapped up next to her bosom in swaddling blankets, with an older child being strapped to the back of mothers in a papoose bag, with both children naked as the day they were born. Children slept next to their mothers by night, and never left her line of sight by day. Every single night, children slept next to mothers, with both in the nude, with children being in skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy with parents. This was secure, vulnerable rest in parents in biblical times, at the lowest and deepest level in terms of intimacy. The goal behind biblical parenting in Ancient Israel and the Early Church was closeness in the short term, and independence in the long term, knowing the recipe for a self-reliant adult child - closeness with parents in childhood.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or abuse, including child abuse. This means the slightest of personal offense perceived by the child, including the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by the child, coming from entitlement. The Apostle Paul, here, is lifting up the Law on punishing children, which was intended as a rebuke for Greek Christians who held onto the habit of punitive parenting. Punishment and controlling measures in parenting was dealt with severely under the Law, with such treatment of children being seen as worthy of death in the Old Testament, and worthy of excommunication in the Early Christian context. The seven verses that depict the rod in Proverbs are repealed verses, meaning they are only relevant to the context in which they were given, culturally and legally. This is because the verses refer to a dated form of judicial corporal punishment - the 40 minus 1 lashes with the rod of correction, as a final warning before putting an ADULT child convicted of a capital crime to death, with that conviction occurring after adequate due process. Minor children could not be whipped, as they could not stand trial for criminal offenses or civil wrongs that they committed - they could not even be charged with a crime.

Co-sleeping was the bread and butter of actual biblical parenting, meaning mothers slept next to their children in order to lull them to sleep, with both mother and child being completely naked, with the two sleeping next to each other in complete and intense closeness and intimacy. Intimacy and closeness were both short-term goals of Christian parents in the 1st Century.

To paint a full picture, co-sleeping existed in an attachment parenting setting. Mothers were responsible for nourishment and sustenance, namely breastmilk and skin-to-skin closeness. Fathers were usually centered and disciplined, but melted for their children. Fathers held connotational sexual attraction to children to the level of "sun tan spray", meaning a spray of attraction on a child's naked body, with children then being naked wherever they went. Fathers expressed this attraction very subtly to other men by putting their children - especially older daughters - on a pedestal, boasting of them in baroque, flowery language, usually relating to children in a passive and vulnerable way, like a human ragdoll. Daughters especially, but sons as well, were guarded heavily by their mother, to prevent child sexual abuse. Co-sleeping was also a method for mothers to supervise their children's interactions with their father at night. No sexual predator would abuse with that level of accountability - most sexual predators are cowardly in their fear of getting caught.

Yes, get this - no sexual abuse can happen in a home where mothers sleep next to their children to lull them to sleep. This is because co-sleeping is actually threatening to adults who sexually abuse children, and thus threats would be detected right away, and if there was any pedophilic attraction to a child, the mother can supervise it and keep watch on it. When a child is alone and isolated in a crib or bed, they usually are afraid if they are under age 6 to go to bed on their own. The reason is that predators existed in ancient times, and they exist even today in homes, and children's instincts will always be wired to know that.

Children in Ancient Israel and the Early Church did not stray from their mother's side until age 6, when they were more independent, and when fathers instructed children in the Bible. Before then, children were seen as too vulnerable and helpless to leave their mother's side, with the child's instinct being to stay close to mother, naturally fearing predators of the human and non-human type. Scorpions existed, and then you had child molesters that existed. Children older than that played freely or else studied Scripture, but still went to their mother's side come nighttime, snuggling with and sleeping next to mothers. This co-sleeping arrangement only ended at adulthood, when children shook off the care and protection of parents, and sought to prove their independence as young men and women... Maybe some of this context is dated, but most all of it can be applied today.

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