Since this thread seems to be rather open-ended, I hope that I can add my five cents worth now without being accused of bumping / hijacking it.
Firstly, my recollections of Circuit Overseers are that they were a very mixed bag - some were almost human!
There was one, though, who served on the circuit in the Central South Island during the early 1980s:
- I knew him well from when he had been a "Special Pioneer" ten years before that.
- While a Special Pioneer, this person's language and behaviour was worse than a lot of "Worldly" people I knew. i.e. Four-letter words were an integral part of his vocabulary; plus he had a definite and well-developed nasty streak in him.
Knowing first hand of his background, I could never take him seriously whenever he visited our congregation in his capacity of Circuit Overseer.
Going back to the opening post in this thread, I think that in a broader sense, the JWs are not a Family-Friendly religion:
- DOs / COs berating parents for a baby crying during a meeting.
- Expecting small children to sit still / sit quietly for two hours at a stretch.
- No provision for the needs / capabilities of small children and babies (i.e. a "Sunday School" type arrangement)
- Demanding that parents bring their children to all the meetings (whatever the time of day or night that these are held at).
I resent the WTS for many things - but top of the list would be for how they prevented me from having a happy, stable family life.
The Circuit Overseers were of little use in this regard. Without exception, all the ones I ever knew had never raised a family - yet seemed to think that they, and they alone could tell you how to do so!
(Just thought that I would finish in the same way that this thread started - i.e. by jabbing pins in the CO's backside!)