What to do about public meltdowns: Dealing with temper tantrums in public

 'Tis the Christmas season once more. Many parents take their children when shopping for distant relatives. Children then usually want something off of the shelf, and they maybe even take something off the shelf. "Put that back" is a statement stemming from entitlement. The fact of the matter is that all this could be avoided by mothers swaddling their children next to their bosom in swaddling blankets.

Swaddling children is part of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission, where children rest in the loving arms of parents. 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 refers to, when understood in context, a secure attachment. This secure attachment comes from parent submission, meaning that parents are to submit to their children as they would to God, from beneath yet from above, expecting absolutely nothing in return.

The Greek root word translating "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 got out the scourge of cords in order to punish their children, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians were persecuted largely for being "too soft" on their children.

Public meltdowns did not happen much in biblical times, like they do today. Ultimately, this was because all of the attachment needs of a child were met. Mothers swaddled their children to the bosom in swaddling blankets. Children were wrapped up next to the mother's bosom. When children were milk-dependent, they were breastfed by mothers until the child pushed away the nipple. 

The swaddling blankets were made of velvet, which was grown throughout the Ancient Middle East. Mothers tucked the swaddled child underneath her revealing dress that resembled an apron. The swaddling blankets were tied to the mother's left breast, and from there across the dot, to the right leg of the mother, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. When children cry while wrapped up next to their mother, they cried silently, with mothers then tending to the need of their babies. This wrapped up state lasted until age 6. Older children who cried in public were cradled in the arms of their mother

Public meltdowns usually happen due to the word "no". However, under God's Law, parents are not allowed to say "no" except under certain specific conditions. The word "no" is only acceptable if the orders from the child are unworkable or immoral in nature. But, when the word "no" did happen, which in biblical times happened in poor families, parents were required by Law to reassure the child, and that is where swaddling blankets come in. Children, in public, were held closer to the bosom of mothers.

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!