Public meltdowns: How to deal with public meltdowns

Many parents think that public meltdowns are worthy of punishment. Most parents punish their children when they cry in public, or else reprimand them. However, the fact of the matter is that public meltdowns can be dealt with peaceably, using swaddling blankets to wrap up a child and make them feel more secure.

Swaddling children is part of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission, where children are secure in the bosom of mothers. 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 as they would to God, from beneath yet from above, expecting absolutely nothing in return. See also Matt. 22:35-40.

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 was 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 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 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 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 due to being "too soft" on their children.

Children under age 6 were swaddled next to the bosom of mothers in swaddling blankets, when mother and child were out and about in public. From there, children were tucked underneath the loose-fitting, revealing dress on mothers that resembled an apron. The swaddling blankets were tied to the left breast, then across the dot to the right leg, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. When children cried while being wrapped up in the bosom of mothers, they cried quietly, with mothers cooing in order to reassure the child. The swaddling blankets were made of velvet, which was grown throughout the Ancient Middle East.

Cooing is a primal vocalization of a mother. Cooing at children set them in line, meaning that when a mother made that cooing noise, children felt validated and heard, with children crying quietly from there. Cooing is what soothes children who are crying, and reassures them that you are right there and that you care.

Older children also sometimes threw tantrums in public. A common piece of gentle parenting advice is to kneel down to the child, and reassure there. In the Early Church, however, mothers picked up children who were throwing a temper tantrum. Children enjoy being picked up, especially when they feel down in the dumps. 

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!