Time-in: Why mammary closeness is the biblical way of doing time-in

Many parents think a crying child is deserving of punishment. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. Most American parents punish their children for throwing a temper tantrum. The most common form of child punishment in America is time-out, alongside the occasional disciplinary spanking done "out of love". The fact of the matter is that the Bible prescribes time-in as a means of dealing with the big feelings of children. Mammary closeness is the proper way of doing time-in.

Time-in is part of 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 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 word ultimately refers to a secure attachment between parent and child in the family home. This secure attachment comes from parent submission, where parents are to submit to their children, 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 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 in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things that they did wrong, thereby treating them 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 of the church, but he sure loved children, and even took in a few orphaned children in his time. Indeed, Greco-Roman fathers used the scourge of cords on their children, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians were persecuted largely for being "too soft" on their children.

Time-in is a valid parenting tool in Christian attachment parenting. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do time-in. Most gentle parenting advice says to kneel down before the child who is upset, and listen to them that way. However, the optimal way of doing time-in is by picking up the child, and holding them to your bosom in mammary closeness. In the family home, mother and child were in birth nudity, meaning they both were quartered in the nude next to each other, in constant skin-on-skin closeness for the first 6 years of a child's life. Children older than age 6 were also picked up, and were cradled close to the bosom of mothers, resting in her loving arms.

When mothers were out and about with their young children - under age 6 - they swaddled their children in swaddling blankets, with the child being tucked underneath the loose-fitting, revealing dress of mothers. The swaddling blankets were made of velvet, which was grown throughout the Ancient Middle East. Swaddling blankets were tied to the left breast of mothers, and then across the dot to the rights leg of mothers, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. Young children who were swaddled in the safety of mother were held closer to her bosom, and if they were milk-dependent, they were breastfed to sleep when they cried. Older children who had their moments were picked up and cradled in the bosom of mothers. 

Mammary closeness is when children is when they are held close to the bosom of mothers, either in the nude in the family home or when out and about when in swaddling blankets. The bosom of mothers is not intended to be sexualized by men. The breasts of women might be attractive to most men, but they are intended by God to comfort children. For some reason, holding your child to that part of the body actually soothes them. 

It should be noted that breastfeeding and tucking children under your shirt in public is actually legal in all 50 states. Breastfeeding in public was common and normal in the Early Church. Tucking children under your shirt in public, in swaddling blankets, was also common and normal in biblical times. There is nothing wrong with breastfeeding or warming up your children in public. Even the Bible allows for breastfeeding or warming up your child in public. Men may look, but modesty laws in the Bible allow for a woman to go completely naked, apart from the secular law that prohibits full frontal nudity of a woman. Men just need to get used to mothers breastfeeding in public. When a milk-dependent child is hungry, he/she is hungry, and mothers shouldn't be forced to breastfeed in the squalor of a dirty bathroom.

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!