Public meltdowns: How to deal with public meltdowns (without punishment or force)

Most parents, if not all, have had to deal with it. A child screaming and carrying on in the store or restaurant. It is normal for children to have their moments in public. However, there is a biblical way to deal with crying in public that is amenable for both parties. This solution involves swaddling blankets for the child.

Swaddling children is a 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 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 their 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 during 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.

When out and about, young children - under age 6 - were swaddled by mothers next to her bosom, in swaddling blankets. From there, the swaddling blankets, alongside the child, were tucked underneath the loose-fitting, revealing dress of the mother, that resembled an apron. The swaddling blankets were tied to the left breast, then across the dot to the right leg of the mother, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. Swaddling blankets were made of velvet, which grew throughout the Ancient Middle East. When children cried, they cried silently, with mothers cooing at their child before holding their child closer to their bosom. Cooing was a primal way for mothers to connect with their children, and make them feel heard.

Children were breastfed to sleep when milk-hungry, with that breastfeeding lasting until the child pushing away and refusing the nipple. If they instead latched on immediately to the nipple of the mother they weren't ready for being weaned. Usually, children were weaned by age 2, but in certain cases, the breastfeeding lasted all the way until age 6. Breastfeeding, in biblical times, could be done in public without it being a major scandal, with breastfeeding in public being normal in that culture.

Sometimes, older children over age 6 had their moments. Children past age 6 were pretty much stationery, which children under that age were not in that culture. When an older child cried in public, mom picked them up, and cradled them next to their bosom, in mammary closeness. Most meltdowns on the part of children over age 6 happened at home, in which case the mother picked the child up, and held the close to her bosom in skin-on-skin mammary closeness. Children that age rarely cried in public, as they have better impulse control than a younger child, and become capable of being embarrassed by their own actions.

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!