"Terrible twos": Why this stage of childhood development can be averted

Most parents have dealt with this behavior in their toddlers. A child kicking and screaming on the floor because they didn't get what they wanted, or a toddler that cries out of nowhere. This is normal childhood behavior when a child is separated from an attachment figure. However, this phase can be entirely prevented by meeting the child's every vulnerable need, including attachment needs. This can be done by cradling toddlers like they are infants.

Toddler meltdowns are best dealt with using the Christian doctrine of mutual submission, where children surrender into the loving arms of parents. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your children 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 to lift up the customary law that commands a secure attachment between parents and children in the family home. This secure attachment came from parent submission, where parents are to submit to their children as their enemy, from beneath yet from above, 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, but not limited to, any punishments, reprimands, or other 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 secular writings.

The "terrible twos" are a modern phenomenon in parenting. This sort of behavior in toddlers is due to deficits in terms of needs, usually attachment needs. For the first 6 years of a child's life, children were treated as babies, and were in constant closeness to mothers - wherever the mother went, so did the child. The Early Christians practiced birth nudity, where mother and child were in the nude next to each other in skin-on-skin closeness and intimacy. Children were breastfed in biblical times, with breastfeeding being normal even when done in public. Age 3 was the average age of weaning, meaning when the child pushed away the nipple. But, sometimes, children didn't push away the nipple until age 6.

2- and 3-year-olds were seen by the Early Christians as babies, and were constantly held by mothers while being breastfed. When cradled in the arms of mothers, children only cried silent tears. When silent tears were cried, mothers responded to the every cry of children, perhaps offering to breastfeed the child a form of righteous pacifier. 

Toddlers were designed by God to be treated as babies, meaning toddlers are not ready to be stationery children. Toddlers were held constantly by their mothers, and this was so that they wouldn't run off and get themselves hurt. When you pamper your children up until age 6, they will be more self-reliant come late childhood and adolescence.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them 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 day and night forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!