Righteous pampering: Why God wants you to pamper children instead of punish them

Many parents think pampering children is the irresponsible way of being a parent. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. Most American parents punish their children even for little things such as crying or bad moods. The fact of the matter is that God wants parents to pamper their children, and for children to be pampered by parents in a certain specific way.

Righteous pampering is part of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: as 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 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 is original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including, but not limited to, any punishments, reprimands, or other controlling demeanor. 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" 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. Indeed, Greco-Roman fathers used the scourge of cords on their children, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians shunned the scourge of cords.

Righteous pampering means pampering your child a certain way. For the first 6 years of a child's life, children were in constant closeness to mothers, meaning that wherever the mother went, so did the child. The Early Christians practiced birth nudity, where mother and child were in the nude in the family home, in skin-on-skin closeness and sustenance. When children cried, mothers cooed before picking up the child, and then holding the child in skin-on-skin mammary closeness. When out and about, young children were swaddled to the bosom of mothers in swaddling blankets. Come nightfall, children co-slept next to mothers in skin-on-skin warmth and sustenance. Co-sleeping lasted until the child reached the onset of puberty, when they wanted their own place to sleep.

Respect for parents was a thing in biblical times. However, children only paid their parents reverent respect once they left the house. At their baptism as an adult, young adults bowed down to their parents, giving thanks for all of the times they were pampered and coddled by their parents. The amount of reverence that a parent received was dependent on how often parents pampered their children, and to what degree parents pampered their children. Some children were punished or otherwise abused by their parents, and they, in most cases, shunned their parents, or in more rare cases, brought their parents before the council of 3 elders, thus getting their parents excommunicated from the church.

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!