Christian attachment parenting: Upholding the Christian tradition of attachment parenting

Many parents think that attachment parenting is banned in the Bible. This is a common attitude towards children by American parents. Most support for punitive parenting is based off of false context about the Bible. The fact of the matter, however, is that the Early Christian context is an attachment parenting context, as well as the Ancient Jewish context as a whole.

Christian attachment parenting is attachment parenting based off of the Early Christian context. The main teaching behind Christian attachment parenting is the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. See Ephesians 6:1-4 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition.

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 comes 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 παροργίζο (Latin: parorgizo) 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 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 as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child 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 in his secular writings. The Early Christians, in fact, shunned the scourge of cords used by broader Greco-Roman society, as well as the 40 minus 1 lashes under the Old Testament law.

The Greek root word translated "nurture" is παιδεία (Latin: paideia) and refers to here, in this context, modeling Christian discipline to children. The Christian standard of discipline is deserving of absolutely nothing, therefore grateful for absolutely everything, coming from a sinful nature, leading to a chastened up example for children to follow. Christian parents in the Early Church centered their entitlement in view of their children. Children in biblical times were caught being good, instead of caught being bad. When children were caught emulating the disciplined example of parents, they were given lavish praise and encouragement to "keep headed down the straight path". Boys were given manly praise when caught being good, and girls were given snuggles when caught being good. Sometimes, children needed to hear direct parental instruction. The Greek root word translated "admonition" is νουθεσία (Latin: nouthesia) and refers to the advice and counsel of parents, meaning that parents could only offer children advice when needed, or else counsel them when upset. Otherwise, parents were under the divine authority of their children, with children issuing lawfully binding orders to parents, with parents being steadfast in their obedience to their children.

What motivates children absorbing the disciplined example of parents? Children are motivated to follow the Christian example of parents by way of a secure attachment. For the first 6 years of a child's life, children were in constant closeness with mothers, meaning that wherever the mother went, the child went also. 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. When children cried, mothers cooed before picking up the child, then holding the child to her bosom in mammary closeness. When mothers were out and about in public, they swaddled their young children - under age 6 - next to their bosom in swaddling blankets. Come nightfall, children co-slept next to mothers in skin-on-skin format, every single night until children reached the onset of puberty, when they wanted their own place to sleep. 

After children attained the age of 6, they were turned over to their father for a religious education. Fathers left out a Bible for the child to find, and get engrossed in. When children were caught reading the family Bible, they were lavishly praised and encouraged in their religious vocation. Fathers formed a bond with the children he was educating, with fathers asking children questions about what they just read. This bond with a child was a sensitive bond, driven by secondary sexual attraction to the child. Fathers indulged in righteous masturbation about their children, which centered the parent attraction and depressed the parental sexual instinct,  with that attraction coming out as a male nurturing instinct. Unlike in surrounding cultures, rape in order to correct erratic behavior in children was banned, meaning fathers were only allowed to masturbate to sexual thoughts about their children, Fathers were a secondary attachment for children, meaning that if children had a secure attachment to their mother, they would develop a secondary secure attachment with their father. Mothers nurture their children up close, and fathers nurture from afar.

Christian attachment parenting is attachment parenting using the Early Christian context as a guide. The Bible is America's book, and tells us as a society how we are supposed to live. The Bible never legitimately commands that parents use any level of force on a child. The rod verses in Proverbs and Hebrews refer to the 40 minus 1 lashes, in figurative tense. The Bible commands parents to have a secure attachment with children, and not to offend or damage children.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to wrath through punitive parenting will not 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 and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!