Public meltdowns: What parents should do about public meltdowns

Many parents think public meltdowns are bad behavior. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. Most American parents punish or reprimand their children when they engage in unruly behavior in public. However, the fact of the matter is that there is no need to reprimand your child in public for unruly behavior. Just swaddle them up in swaddling blankets when out and about.

Swaddling a child is a pictorial statement, as well as literal one, that represents the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not to 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, This secure rest came in the form of secure attachment, with this secure attachment being commanded by God. This secure attachment comes from parent submission, where parents submit to the good graces of their children, from beneath yet from above.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refer 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 under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen 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 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 well have not gotten along with the women of the church, but he sure loved children, and took in a few orphaned children in his time. Indeed, Greco-Roman fathers whipped their children with the scourge of cords, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians were hated largely for being "too soft" on their children.

Public meltdowns were not that common in biblical times, compared to today, or at least they weren't as ferocious as they are today. When out and about in public, mothers swaddled their young children - under age 6 - to her bosom in swaddling blankets. The swaddling blankets were made of velvet, which was grown throughout the Ancient Middle East. Children were tucked underneath the loose-fitting, revealing dress of mothers, in swaddling blankets. These swaddling blankets were tied to the left breast of mothers, and then, from across the dot, to the right leg of the mother, vice versa, or both in the case of twins. Milk-dependent children were breastfed to sleep whenever they cried. Older children were simply picked up and cradled in the arms of mothers, in mammary closeness. When swaddled children were upset, they cried soft tears, and were held closer to the mother's bosom, and breastfed when milk-dependent.

The way this can be applied today is by way of following the abovementioned context to the degree allowed under the law of the land. When children are older, they should be taken to the ladies' room and then be tucked under the blouse of the mother, in skin-on-skin comfort and sustenance. With children under age 6, you can follow the ancient instructions on how to swaddle your child in the abovementioned context. Most people can't find velvet, but they can find something to comfort their child. Comfort should be constant when out an about in public, and swaddling your child can ensure constant comfort for your child. Most gentle parenting advice calls for the parent to kneel to the child, whereas the biblical understanding of dealing with public meltdowns is to pick up the child, and swaddle young children in her bosom in swaddling blankets.

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 day and night forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!