Temper tantrums: What to do about temper tantrums

Many parents think that temper tantrums are bad behavior. This is a common attitude towards children by American parents. Most American parents punish temper tantrums in children. The fact of the matter, however, is that temper tantrums are normal behavior in children. Temper tantrums are a form of communication in children, not bad behavior to be punished.

Temper tantrums can be treated using the Christian doctrine of mutual submission, where children surrender into the loving arms of mothers. 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 in 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 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. Indeed, Greco-Roman parents in ancient times used the scourge of cords, but NOT the Christians among them - the scourge of cords was shunned by the Early Church.

Children threw temper tantrums in biblical times, usually simply by crying. Whenever children cried, mothers were quick to respond, cooing while picking up the child in skin-on-skin fashion, then holding the child close to her bosom in mammary closeness, perhaps breastfeeding the child to sleep if he/she was milk-dependent. Most of the time, the response time was quick, and so all the child did was cry some before having their vulnerable need fulfilled.

For the first 6 years of a child's life, children were in constant closeness to mothers, meaning that wherever the child went, so did the mother. 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 at home, young children ranged next to mothers, never leaving her side. When out and about in public, young children were swaddled next to the bosom of mothers in swaddling blankets. When young children cried in public, they were already in the sustaining warmth of mothers, and were commonly breastfed to sleep while tied up to the bosom of mothers in swaddling blankets. Come nightfall, children co-slept next to mothers in skin-on-skin format. Children slept next to mothers until the onset of puberty, when children wanted their own place to sleep.

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!