Many parents have been there. A child crying out of nowhere. Most American parents have had their child cry for seemingly no reason at all. However, there is always an antecedent to the cries of a child. Most of the time, the child is communicating a vulnerable need.
God's Law on a secure bond between parent and child is spelled out in Colossians 3:20 KJV:
Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers here to surrender of a specific type, namely surrender into the loving arms of parents, especially the loving arms of mothers. Ultimately, this word refers to a secure bond between parent and child. The context tells us how to form a secure bond with children. The idea is that children should rest in the Agape love of parents (see Matt. 22:35-40).The first thing to do in order to form a secure bond with children is to respond to the every cry of a child.
Christian parents in the Early Church knew more than parents today that children usually cry due to a vulnerable need that needs being met. Whenever a child cried in the Early Church, mothers scrambled to find the reason for the cry. Maybe the child was tired. Maybe the child was hungry. Maybe the child needed mom's milk. Maybe the child needed mom, period. Whatever the child needed, they got it.
Children were understood under customary law in the Early Church as having five basic categories of needs; food, water, shelter, transportation, and attachment - with the greatest of these needs being attachment! Sometimes the child needed a nap, in which case that need was lumped in with attachment needs, as mothers then co-snuggled with their children, forming a secure bond with their child.
A common reason why children cry is due to separation anxiety. Children under age 6, in the Early Church, had a morbid fear of mothers "going away and never coming back". Children under age 6 were seemingly attached to mothers at the hip, following mothers from room to room, crying whenever mothers were out of sight. It is recommended that mothers stay home for the first 6 years of a child's life. Even something seemingly benign as going to work in the morning can realize the worst fear in a child - mom going away and never coming back.
Children never cry to "undermine parents". Children instead cry in order to communicate a vulnerable need that needs being met, in the only way that they know how. The idea is to respond to the every cry of your child. The purpose of a child crying is to break down the mother to meet the exact need of the child, with mothers scrambling to figure out why the child was crying, in the form of trial and error. The first place mothers looked for needs then was skin-on-skin mammary closeness, and also breastfeeding if the child was milk-dependent. If the child kept crying past that point, the mother scrambled to figure out what the child was crying about. The child did not stop crying until all of their needs were met.
The depraved and entitled parents who punish their children for crying will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them descend into the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment! Repent!
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