Co-sleeping: Why the Bible endorses co-sleeping

Many parents think that co-sleeping is the irresponsible choice for a parent to make. The main argument against co-sleeping is that it hinders a child's ability to self-soothe. Most parents try to teach their infants to self-soothe, usually by way of isolating children in a crib or bed in their own room. The fact of the matter is that not only do children only learn to self-soothe much later in life, but co-sleeping has certain advantages in protecting children from sexual abuse, and preventing it beforehand.

Co-sleeping exists within the context of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. Parents are to be submissive to children, just as mankind is to be submissive to God. In return, children rest safely and securely in the love and submission 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 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 as they would to God, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents. Parents are to submit to their children as their enemy, from beneath yet from above, revering and fearing children as vulnerable extensions of God. 

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, stemming 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 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 that they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here 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 often refuse to go to bed on their own. This is a common occurrence in family homes across the country. This is often chalked up to defiance, with children who refuse to go to bed on their own punished for that refusal. The fact of the matter is that children refuse to go to bed on their own because they aren't emotionally ready to go to bed on their own. Children in that age bracket, and sometimes older, have a primal fear of being devoured by predators when left isolated alone in a room. Many think the ancient days of warding off predators from one's children are over, but there exists modern-day predators, and they exist in your own home. Mosr child sexual abuse is committed by a father or father figure in the home, and most child sexual abuse takes place when a child is isolated in a bedroom. All fathers are sexually attracted to their children, usually their daughters, on a secondary level, and this sexual attraction is usually repressed, with sexual abuse happening when this repressed desire comes out sideways onto the child. Mothers in biblical times guarded children from the sexual entitlement of their fathers by co-sleeping next to them, in skin-on-skin format.

Many pediatricians and mental health professionals serving children warn parents who co-sleep that their child "won't be able to self-soothe". The fact of the matter is that self-soothing is a skill that children acquire much later in childhood. Psychohistory shows that in Ancient Israel and the Early Church, that children who co-slept stayed next to their mothers, and slept next to their mothers, until they were at an age where they felt safe shaking off the closeness of their mothers on their own. Once children started shaking off the closeness of their mothers, fathers stepped in and encouraged such bold feats of independence. Thus, children will tell you when they are ready to self-soothe, and that milestone comes at a different age with different children. 

Children, in biblical times, wore absolutely no clothing, at all, until they became adults. Women only wore clothing outside the home, otherwise going in the nude, in order to serve both their husbands and their children, separately. Mothers served their children by way of providing for them nourishment and sustenance, namely attachment parenting items such as breastfeeding and skin-on-skin co-sleeping. The core aspect of Christian attachment parenting in the 1st Century was skin-on-skin co-sleeping. This form of skin-on-skin closeness at night geled a secure attachment between mothers and children. Fathers formed a secure bond with their child by way of witnessing skin-on-skin co-sleeping between mother and child, and wanting in on the action as per having a sexual attachment to the child, thus imprinting on the child with their sexual attachment upon masturbatory orgasm. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke 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!