Preventing public meltdowns: How the Early Christians prevented public meltdowns in children

Many parents have to deal with it in their younger children. Most parents have had to deal with a child throwing a public temper tantrum. Most parents think the answer to public meltdowns is punishment of some sort. The fact of the matter is that public meltdowns were next to non-existent among children in the Early Church. Parents in biblical times used swaddling blankets to keep children close and avoid power struggles.

The use of swaddling blankets is part of the Christian doctine of mutual submission. 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, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and submission 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 they would to God, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting safely and securely in the wake of the submission of parents. Parents are to submit to 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 a 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 children. 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 that they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law 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 in his writings.

Public meltdowns seem to be common today among children. Most parents have to deal with a child throwing a temper tantrum in public. Most parents are embarrassed by these behaviors, and seek to punish the child throwing the temper tantrum for embarrassing them. But, these types of situations with young children are completely avoidable. The key is for mothers to swaddle their children next to their bosom in swaddling blankets.

Married and betrothed women in biblical times, when out and about, wore a thin, revealing dress similar to an apron, that only covered up the basics. Women did not have to wear clothing at all, and didn't when in the family home, but wore a thin dress to honor their husbands or fiancees. Women in the Corinthian church in particular wore bonnets to honor their husbands. Young children, up until age 6, went wherever the mother did, and when out and about, the child was slipped under the mother's dress, and was supported by swaddling blankets tied to one of her breasts from the top, and maybe to her leg from the bottom. The child was breastfed in public, if the child was milk-hungry, and otherwise simply received skin-on-skin comfort and sustenance from mothers.

Whenver a child cried, it was a silent cry, as they in constant closeness with their mother. Mothers then would coo and hold the child closer, perhaps breastfeeding the child in the process if the child was milk-hungry. Children up until age 6 were treated like babies. Thus, the kind of public meltdowns you see today in children were next to non-existent in biblical times. 

Women in biblical times rarely left the house, but they were allowed to, meaning husbands did not quarter their wives in biblical times. Usually, women walked to the nearest town to go to market, and by meats and vegetables to cook for the family, or for the husband to cook - in some Christian homes in the 1st Century, the man of the house cooked for his wife. She usually took the children along, and usually, one of the children was too young to walk on his/her own, so the mother swaddled the child next to her bosom in swaddling blankets.

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!