Preventing public meltdowns: How to curtail public meltdowns

Many parents have been there. A child who is kicking and screaming in the store or restaurant. This is a common and normal experience on the part of American parents. Most American parents punish their children when they kick and scream in public. However, there is a way to pacify a child's cries without punishment or force. That came from mothers swaddling children next to their bosom in swaddling blankets.

Wrapping children up in swaddling blankets is a form of mutual submission between parent and child, with the burden of proof falling squarely on the part 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 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 just as they would to God, from beneath yet from above, expecting absolutely nothing in return. See also Matt. 22:35-40, 25:31-46.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offense, 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. The 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 children during his time as a deacon.

Whenever mothers and children under age 6 were out and about in public, children were wrapped up in swaddling blankets next to the bosom of mothers. The swaddling blankets - and the child with them - were then tucked underneath the loose-fitting, revealing dress worn by mothers that resembled an apron. Beforehand, mothers tied the swaddling blanket from the left breast, then across the dot to the right leg, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. Whenever children cried, the closeness pacified the cries, with mothers then holding the child close to her bosom, with the child being able to hear the heartbeat of mothers. The swaddling blankets were made of velvet, which grew throughout the Ancient Middle East.

The most common reason for a child throwing a kicking and screaming is the child hearing the word "no". The solution to this is to say "yes" far more often than saying "no". Christian parents in the Early Church, under customary law, were mandated to say "yes" in most all cases. The only reason that parents would say "no" was when children were ordering something from parents that is unsafe, unworkable, and/or immoral. Even when children were wrapped up in swaddling blankets, all they had to do was point, and the mother got the item off of the shelf. 

Older children were given their own spending money, without ever having to work for that money. But, children soon learned that money is a finite resource, when they had to put something back on the shelf. But, mom chipped in anyway by paying for the item herself.

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!