Co-sleeping: Why sleeping next to your children helps gel the bond between parent and child

Many parents think that co-sleeping is the irresponsible choice as a parent. This is a common belief amongst American parents. Most American parents oppose co-sleeping mainly it supposedly hampers a child's ability to self-soothe. The fact of the matter is that children learn to self-soothe on their own, not through parent input. Also, co-sleeping has child safety benefits in relation to sexual abuse prevention. Co-sleeping saves lives.

Co-sleeping can be understood as part of a Christian dynamic known as the doctrine of mutual submission, at the lowest level. 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. Children are to rest securely in the sacrifice of parents, just as parent believers rest securely in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Parents are to be extensions of Christ in the family home, dutifully and selflessly submitting to children just as one would God, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents. Children are to rest safely and securely in the presence of parents, trusting parents in all things, following mothers especially around like a gosling to a mother goose.

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 a 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 your child hostage merely for things they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul was lifting up this legal context in order to convict a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child.

It is common knowledge that children aged 2-6 refuse to go to their own room and sleep on their own. This is commonly thought of as a form of defiance among children, with children frequently being punished for not going to sleep on their own. In reality, children have a primal fear of being devoured by predators when left isolated in a room. Many parents think the days of snakes and wild cats devouring children are gone, but there are still predators that could devour your child, and this fear is a subconscious way of the child petitioning protection from such predators. Most child sexual abuse is committed by a father or father figure in the house, and usually the abuse is committed when the child is isolated in a room all by his/herself. Mothers in biblical times slept next to their children in order to guard their children from the sexual entitlement of their fathers, usually in skin-on-skin format to accustom the father to the arrival of the new children in the household, and have him grieve through masturbation. Most adult men in biblical times were pedophiles towards their own children, but only in abstinent format. Most fathers were attracted to their daughters especially, and this gelled a sexual attachment to his children in general, and this came from observing mother-child closeness and intimacy. However, there was a risk of the father becoming sexually entitled in his attractions, and so the mother held the children close. 

Many parents and professionals alike think that co-sleeping leads to children not being able to learn to self-soothe. The fact of the matter is that babies are not ready to self-soothe. Different children become able to self-soothe at different ages, but usually, they cannot self-soothe until they are at least school-age. The average age of being able to self-soothe is 8-9. Children will let you know when they are ready to self-soothe, and they will do it by insisting on sleeping on their own. When this happens, encourage this bold feat of independence lavishly. Some children will want to sleep next to their mothers later than age 8-9, and this is okay. Some children will want to co-sleep much later, maybe into the late teen years, and this is okay as well. Every child is different, and so whenever your child wants to shake you off, that is the right time. 

Children, in biblical times, wore absolutely no clothing, at all, until they became adults. Women only wore clothing outside the home, and otherwise went in the nude, in order to serve both their husbands and their children, separately. Mothers served their children by providing for them nourishment and sustenance, namely attachment parenting items such as breastfeeding and skin-on-skin co-sleeping. The central aspect of Christian attachment parenting in the 1st Century was skin-on-skin co-sleeping, with mother and child sleeping next to each other, with children soaking up the rays of skin-to-skin contact with mothers. Fathers slept next to the mother and child, being duly convicted of a secure attachment to their child, forming a sexual attachment to the child from the exposed skin. Fathers dealt with their sexual attachments to their children, usually daughters, by way of following the sexual thought to the end using solo masturbation. Actual child sexual abuse was rare next to non-existent in biblical times, but when it happened, it was seen as deserving of death, even in the New Testament, where the death penalty was abolished. In the New Testament, Christ put an end to pillaging and sexual boastfulness and braggery, and asserted that fornication and sexual offenses were a form of blasphemy against God worse than murder, and that clearly included child sexual abuse. All of this is denoted by the Greek root word πορνεία (Latin: porneia). 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting 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!