Why not to threaten children with Santa

Many parents believe in Santa Claus, and many parents teach this myth to their children. Some parents here in the children's rights movement do not believe in Santa Claus at all, meaning Santa doesn't come to many of our houses here in this community. I personally shun Santa Claus because he is a replicate of the Norse god Odin. Santa Claus is used as a behavioral modification tool to "get" children to behave. Christmas is for all children, not just the "good" children.

What is the meaning of Christmas? Jesus Christ was born, and Christmas day is the day we commemorate it. Christ was actually born on September 11, 1 A.D. Since nobody wants to celebrate Christ's birthday on that somber day, we continue to celebrate Christmas on December 25. It is simply a belated birthday party for our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was valued as God on earth, in child format. Most children were valued and worshipped similarly to Christ, namely as extensions of God, meaning installments of God called to convict adults of their charitable role, and report to God the progress in that endeavor. It must have been very eerie for Mary to actually give birth to God Himself, or more aptly, the Son of God.

Threatening a child, for any reason, is the moral crime of parental entitlement, including in the guise of Santa Claus. The Greek root word denoting entitlement in the New Testament, including parental entitlement, and cross-referencing the Tenth Commandment, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and refers to, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. Unofficially speaking, parental entitlement refers to wanting things from children, period. Wanting things from children include wanting control over them, and all attempts to impose your want to control them onto them, and that can include using Santa to threaten children who are not behaving the way you want them to. Deadly parental entitlement is when want is imposed on children, and when this leads to offense, that is child abuse in God's eyes. See Colossians 3:21 KJV:

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

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 a 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 punishments or controlling demeanor towards a child. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding children hostage merely for things they did wrong, thereby treating a child as a quartered slave. Paul was lifting up this legal context to a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan customs of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular belief, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child.

Children do not misbehave on purpose. Children are people who are still developing into adults, and will not become mature adults until they are a certain age, when they are completely independent and can take of themselves. All children need to behave once they are adults is a good Christian example of discipline and non-entitlement, backed up by attachment parenting, with this setup known as Christian attachment parenting. Threatening children with Santa is useless, because the child just acts up anyway, doesn't he/she? It may be an empty threat, but it may cause fear in the child, and that kind of fear is unnecessary and abuse. Just give the child space to grow up on his/her own. Children develop on their own, not with the help of parents. 

In the mean time, until becoming a responsible adult, they may cry or pout, but such is normal behavior for children to engage in, and behavior they will grow out of in due time. Almost everything we find to be misbehavior in children is actually developmentally appropriate behavior (and when it isn't, think a developmental disorder of some sort), and should be let go or else gently redirected. If the child does not respond to the redirection, they most likely did not understand your words, and won't until a later date - when they become more developmentally mature. Children are clinically entitled, meaning they want what they want when they want it, and can't control their wants. A child's ability to control their wants differs from child to child, and by what age they are. Some children have a developmental disorder such as autism that further hampers development of self-control. Children are not going to be able to be self-controlled and disciplined all the time. At least not until they become adults. They need a Christ to get behind in that regard, until they can behave themselves on their own - and that Christ to get behind is YOU.

How should Christian attachment parenting be done? Children, in biblical times, wore no clothing, at all, until they were adults. Women only wore clothing outside the home, and otherwise went in the nude, in order to serve her husband and her children, separately. Mothers served their children by providing for them nourishment and sustenance, namely breastmilk (until age 3) and skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy. The core aspect of Christian attachment parenting is skin-on-skin co-sleeping, with mother and child fast asleep next to each other in the nude, with children soaking up the rays of skin-to-skin contact. Children went naked for a specific reason in biblical times - so mothers could cuddle them up and snuggle them up when they were crying or upset. Show warmth and love to your crying or tantrumming child, and reassure them through their big feelings. Also, do not say "no" unless you absolutely have to. Children do not have to hear the word "no" uttered all the time. Only when their demands are unreasonable or immoral. There is no need for any threats from Santa of coal, or worse, a "whip that cracks". 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be forever cast into 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!