Crying: Why crying is not bad behavior (and what to do about such behavior)

Many parents believe that crying in children, at least past a certain age, is bad behavior. This is a common attitude of American parents towards children. Most American parents punish crying in children, at least some of the time. The fact of the matter, however, is that this sort of parenting is alien to the Bible and its context.

Reassuring crying is part of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission, with children surrendering into the loving arms of mothers, with mothers providing nourishment and sustenance to children. 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 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 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 controlling demeanor. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death 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. The Early Christian church communities prohibited and shunned the scourge of cords used in Roman and Greek homes.

Crying is a normal behavior in children, and is a way that they communicate needs. Mothers in biblical times intuitively knew this, and pampered children when they were upset. Mothers responded to the every cry of their child, and did so by cooing before picking up the child in skin-on-skin closeness and intimacy, then holding the child close to her bosom in mammary closeness, so that the child could hear her heartbeat. When mothers were out and about in public, mothers swaddled their young children - under age 6 - in swaddling blankets next to their bosom. When children cried in public, they usually did so softly, and then mothers responded usually by holding the young child closer to her bosom. Children in biblical times were breastfed, including even in public if the mother was called to by the summonses of her child. 

Older children sometimes cried in public. In which case, the mother picked up the child and held the child close to the mother's bosom, with the child tucked into the mother's dress. The idea of skin-on-skin mammary closeness was for children to hear the heartbeat of mothers. This, for some reason known only to God and nature, soothes children when they are upset. With older children, you can have a conversation with them about why they were crying. 

The Early Christians practiced birth nudity, where mother and child were in the nude next to each to each other, in skin-on-skin closeness and intimacy. Children were naked wherever they went. Mothers were naked in the family home as well, in order to serve both her child and her husband, separately. When out and about in public, mothers wore a loose-fitting, revealing dress similar to an apron. Young children under age 6 were wrapped up next to the bosom with the swaddling blankets tied to the left breast, then across the dot to the right leg, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. Older children were temporarily placed under the dress of mothers. The Early Christian form of birth nudity was a gravy train that never ended for children in the Bible.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger 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!