It took a long time, but I can finally say I'm out and I took my family with me.
This is my first post but I have been reading here for a while. I was brought up a Witness, in a family that was very 'strong' (or so everyone thought). I didnt have a relationship with my perents at all other than the 'family study'. When I was 14 I got baptised because it was 'the right thing to do', and I even started pioneering at 16 because everyoine in my family did and it was expected of me. But I never really believed it. Isn't it amazing that they can make you think its the only way to have friends?
When I was 20 got married to an awesome girl and there the problems started. My perents refused to support the wedding because we were 'too young', even though the rules on sex mean that you have to get married early if you want to have a proper relationship (no that that stopped us ). My dad even got up on the platform during a service meeting and gave a talk on the dangers of getting married young and how the congregation shouldnt support such young weddings... Needless to say my relationship with my family went madly downhill from there.
I would of been happy to leave at that time but I was just married and my wife was still a believer and was, and still is very close to her family. I was determined that while I wanted out I wasnt going to lose my family (being my wife and 2 daughters) over any religion. S I started a slow fade... to cut a long story short I managed to get my wife to see reality and then we successfully managed to fade while living next door to an elder (Im proud of that bit). We havent been to a meeting for 2 years now and are celebrating xmas and birthdays with our girls, and my wife's family still associates with her. While it may come crashing down at some point, at this stage it is looking good.
Sorry for the long post, but I just felt the need to share my story after reading everyone else's encouraging posts here.