Why co-sleeping is recommended in the Bible

Many parents think that co-sleeping is the irresponsible thing to do as a parent. This is a common belief among American parents. Most American parents believe that co-sleeping is the wrong way to go as a parent, usually citing sleep dependence as a possible outcome coming from co-sleeping. The fact of the matter is that co-sleeping is the most time-honored of strategies used as a parent-child bonding strategy, predating spanking and punishment by millennia.

Attachment parenting is a command in the Bible, with "attachment parenting" meaning any parenting based on a secure parent-child bond, and not obtaining obedience and subservience from children. It says in 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 be extensions of Christ in the family home, sacrificing for their children, just as Christ sacrificed for His children, with parents serving a Godhead which is children, with children resting in the sacrifice of parents, just as parents rest in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as adult believers. Attachment parenting was the established norm in Ancient Judeo-Christian society. Attachment parenting was mandated in Ancient Israel by way of Jewish customary law, and was also mandated in the Early Church by way of church ordinance.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by the child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by the child, coming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishment or controlling demeanor coming from a parent. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children too many times. Parents who punished their children in biblical times were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" as a criminal charge referring to damages or offense stemming from hostage-taking - any punishment of children was seen then by the religious authorities as holding a child hostage for things they did wrong. Paul here was lifting up this historical legal context to a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. No such custom existed among the Early Christians, as the Early Christians used attachment parenting to relate to their children.

It is well known that between ages 2-5, children refuse to go to bed on their own. Many parents simply are dismissive about the situation, chalking it up to a "defiant" nature in children. The fact of the matter is that children of that age are still too young to sleep on their own. Children under the age of 6 have a primal fear of being preyed on by predators when isolated in a room overnight. Many parents might scoff at this fear, calling it immature - due to the fact that we don't live in ancient times - but it is a very real fear in a child. Plus, children are at risk of predation even today, as the most common instance where sexual abuse happens is when a child is isolated in a room alone. A child instinctively knows that they could be targeted by a child predator. Co-sleeping stops predators from getting near children - because the mother is right there! The fact that the mother is right there scares child predators away from doing their dirty deeds against children, usually making a child predator so insecure that they show themselves. Sexual abuse was rare next to non-existent in biblical times, and that is because the mother was there to supervise all of the time, even at bedtime by way of co-sleeping. The only way the abuser could get their way was to mount the mother with the child on top. In the Early Christian context, rare instances of sexual abuse of children led to immediate divorce with no hope of reconciliation, and permanent excommunication of the sex offender from the church. 

Sleep dependence is a myth spread by medical professionals based on incomplete research on co-sleeping. Children sleep next to their parents until they are ready to shake off that closeness and be on their own. Children naturally will want to, at some point, be independent from their parents, and then they will declare their independence by electing to sleep alone. Parents in biblical times would, when children wanted to sleep alone, challenge them to do so, and if they couldn't, they were always welcome in their parents' bed. In biblical times, this shaking off of parents happened at various ages, but was the first step in a child being independent from parents entirely. Parenting then was based on the concept of independence from parents, versus obedience to parents.

Children went naked in biblical times, wherever they went. Women went naked in order to serve their husband and their children, separately. Children in biblical times slept in the nude next to their mothers, with the purpose of the nudity being to form a closer bond with children, in the form of skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy. Children were guarded next to mothers, soaking up the rays as to skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy. The nudity brought the level of attachment down to an equal level, with mothers playfully relating to their children, seeing them as equals and not subservient beings. Parents did not strike or punish their children, but instead gained cooperation through skin-on-skin co-sleeping. Skin-on-skin co-sleeping was used for children of all ages, until they shook their parents' closeness off. Mothers breastfed their children until age 3.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be forever cast in to 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 ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!