Temper tantrums: Why temper tantrums are not bad behavior

Many parents have to deal with it. Most children do engage in temper tantrums from time to time. This is a common and normal behavior in children. Most parents believe in punishing children as a means of controlling their temper tantrums. The fact of the matter is, however, that temper tantrums are not bad behavior. They are perfectly normal for a young child in particular. There are attachment parenting methods parents can use to keep temper tantrums at bay.

Righteous closeness is how you deal with temper tantrums. Righteous closeness is part of the Christian doctrine 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 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 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. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul as lifting up the customary law that commands a secure attachment between parent and child in the family home. This secure attachment comes from parent submission, where parents are to submit to children as their enemy, expecting absolutely nothing in return.

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 of 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.

Temper tantrums are a normal part of parenting, as temper tantrums are normal in children. However, temper tantrums didn't escalate beyond crying in young children. This is because children, up until age 6, were in constant closeness to mothers, meaning that wherever the mother went, so did the child. The Early Christians practiced birth nudity, with mothers and children in the nude next to each other, in skin-on-skin closeness and intimacy. Mothers responded to the every cry of a child, cooing while picking up the child, then co-snuggling with the child in skin-on-skin format. The birth nudity of the interaction between mother and child opened up raw separation anxiety in the child, which the mother accommodated by constantly reassuring her child of her presence. The cry of separation anxiety was a high-pitch, deathly cry, with the child fearing that mom would "go away and never come back". This is why mothers in biblical times reassured children of their presence. 

Public meltdowns were dealt with by swaddling. Mothers swaddled their young children - up until age 6 - next to her bosom in swaddling blankets. Mothers then wore a thin, revealing dress, and tucked the swaddled child underneath her dress. The swaddling blankets were made of velvet, and tied from the left breast, across the dot to the right leg of the mother, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. This swaddling setup kept children from running off and possibly being bitten by a snake or a scorpion, and quieted the cry when children tantrummed in public. When the swaddled child cried, he/she was held closer to the mother's bosom, and reassured warmly with the mother cooing to validate the child's upset. Mothers breastfed their children in public when summoned to by the crying of the child.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger through punitive parenting will noy inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them forever be 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 day and night forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!