Public meltdowns: What to do about public meltdowns

Many parents have to deal with it, at some point. A public meltdown. Most parents punish their children when they have meltdowns in public, or else ignore the meltdown. However, parents in biblical times did not ignore or punish their children. Mothers instead swaddled their children next to their bosom in swaddling blankets.

Swaddling children 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. This secure attachment comes from parent submission, where parents are to submit to children as they would to God, 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 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 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 children as a deacon. 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 are a modern occurrence, and didn't happen so much in biblical times. That is because children under age 6 were swaddled next to the bosom of mothers in swaddling blankets. From there, children were tucked under the loose-fitting, revealing dress of a mother that resembled an apron. The swaddling blankets were tied to the left breast, then tied across the dot to the right leg, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. The swaddling blankets were made of velvet, which grew throughout the Ancient Middle East. When children cried while swaddled to mothers, mothers simply cooed and then held the child closer to her bosom, perhaps breastfeeding right there and then in public if the child was milk-hungry. 

Sometimes, older children cried in public, in which case mothers picked up the child, cooing at their children before holding them in her loving arms. Children, when crying, should be lightweight enough to be scooped up and held. 

Cooing at children is a primal way of reassuring them, with cooing settling down the meltdown like magic, preparing them for the empathy of their mother. Cooing was a way to tell children that they are heard, and that their feelings do matter. This cooing also works for children under age 6 when they are swaddled next 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!