Whining: What to do about whining

Many parents have to deal with it, some of the time. A child whining, either at home or in the store. Most parents interpret whining as a form of disrespect. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. However, the fact of the matter is that whining is a sign of maturity in a child, and needs the same thing that crying needs - closeness and intimacy with mothers,

Children need the reassurance of mothers when whining. This reassurance comes in primal format, meaning cooing at children. This response fits right in with the 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. Parents are the enemy of children, just as mankind is the enemy of God, and are to submit as such. This form of child surrender came with strings attached on the part of parents, with children being able to issue righteous demands on children, usually happening when parents weren't pulling their weight.

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 as 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. Paul may not have gotten along with the women in the church, but he sure loved children, and took in a few orphaned children in his time. Indeed, Greco-Roman fathers used the scourge of cords to punish their children, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians were hated largely for being "too soft" on their children.

Whining is a sign of maturity in a child, not a sign of immaturity. For the first 6 years of a child's life, children cried. After around age 6, children switched from primarily crying to primarily whining. Whining is how an older child, namely a school-age child, communicates vulnerable needs. It sure gets your attention, but usually, parents don't respond the right way to whining, and then punish a child.

In the biblical context, mothers cooed at their children when they whined. Cooing is a primal way of reassuring and validating a child who is all out of sorts, and that includes whining. When children whined, they were met with a coo from mothers, as well as a coo from fathers when dad was home. The coo, upon being heard by the child, always made the child feel heard, validating the upset of the child.

After cooing at the child, children were placed next to the bosom of mothers in mammary closeness. Modern gentle parenting advice says to kneel down to the child. However, the child, in biblical times, was picked up and held close to the bosom of mothers. Older children were not swaddled in public, but were simply picked up and held when they cried or whined. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast forever 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!