If raised JW - or in while young - how strict were your parents?

Jamelle

I'm just curious to know where my parents register on the scale of strictness...

Growing up, I felt absolutely smothered by my parents (mostly my mother). The things I couldn't do were above and beyond the limitations put on the other young people in our hall. For instance...

1) I was not allowed to listen to any music made after 1960 which means I was rockin' with the oldies alot

2) I was not allowed to watch any movies that were made after 1960 or so, exceptions were made but I was never allowed to see anything PG-13 or above. My mother once came and removed me from a slumber party where they were watching "Adventures in Baby Sitting". How she found out we were watching that I do not to this day know = at the time I assumed she was all knowing because of some direct link with God.

3) I was not supposed to read any books that had naughty things in them (her definition of naughty was completely prudish) or had anything to do with something demonistic. This meant that I had to smuggle books like the Narnia series by C.S.Lewis home from the school library or just read at school. Fortunately, my mother was a great believer in knowing a book by its cover. If the title and jacket picture looked harmless, she usually didn't investigate further.

4) I was not allowed to go anywhere with the other girls from the KH unsupervised - ever. Which meant that the fun trips to the mall - where the other girls got dropped off by their parents - not for me. There were many, many other examples.

5) My clothes had to be extremely modest - high collars - skirts well past my knees - pretty much just frumpy. Sensisble clothes.

So - what other craziness did others have to endure? I understand that in the grand scheme of things I could have been alot worse off. I could have had physically abusive parents, etc. Just wondering what kind of experiences are out there that might compare to mine.

RichieRich

My father isn't in the truth, which really invalidates a lot of things that my mom tried to impose.

No water guns or toy guns.

No batman, superman, spiderman, or Super Ninja Tennage Turtles.

No regis philbin shirt-tie combos.

no missing service or meeting for fun- ever.

And- what personally upset me the most:

Anything I had was property of anyone who might want to play with it. When the weird kids would come over from the hall, they would just rip through my toybox and take out the nicest things i had and screw them up. One time, I was somewhere with my dad, and some kids came over, and mom let them go through my toys. Well, one kid found my favorite toy and became absolutrly entranced with it. Mom was like, Richie never plays with that, why don't you take it home. Well, the kid sure as hell did, and mom never apologized.

mrsjones5

1) I was not allowed to listen to any music made after 1960 which means I was rockin' with the oldies alot
2) I was not allowed to watch any movies that were made after 1960 or so, exceptions were made but I was never allowed to see anything PG-13 or above. My mother once came and removed me from a slumber party where they were watching "Adventures in Baby Sitting". How she found out we were watching that I do not to this day know = at the time I assumed she was all knowing because of some direct link with God.
3) I was not supposed to read any books that had naughty things in them (her definition of naughty was completely prudish) or had anything to do with something demonistic. This meant that I had to smuggle books like the Narnia series by C.S.Lewis home from the school library or just read at school. Fortunately, my mother was a great believer in knowing a book by its cover. If the title and jacket picture looked harmless, she usually didn't investigate further.
4) I was not allowed to go anywhere with the other girls from the KH unsupervised - ever. Which meant that the fun trips to the mall - where the other girls got dropped off by their parents - not for me. There were many, many other examples.
5) My clothes had to be extremely modest - high collars - skirts well past my knees - pretty much just frumpy. Sensisble clothes.

Compared to that list I guess my parents and I were very close to being "worldly" they were strict just not that strict

R6Laser

-couldn't watch rated R movies, or violent cartoons.

-no school sports

-couldn't stay home saturday or sunday mornings and watch cartoons, had to go to field service.

-no dating

-couldn't wear clothes with any kind of flags or symbols

-no violent video games

-couldn't accept a job because it would interfere with meetings

-no comic books

-couldn't listen to rap, or heavy metal

I could go on and on. Later on I took a stand on what I wanted to do and I was allowed.

Plummet

-G rated movies only, up till I moved out

-Attended ALL meetings, no questions asked, if I had to miss a meeting I would have to attend that meeting in another cong.

-No School activities, Sports, clubs, games ect.

-I had to study with the family for the meetings Tues., Thurs. and Sun., Family Study on Mon. and Service Practice on Fri., regardless of how much homework I had. I spent many many night up till 2 am or waking up at 4 am to finish homework. (I was even late to my first job interview because of our Tues. study)

-Rarly was allowed to spent the night at a friends house, or have a friend stay at our house. On the few occasions when I was permitted, both my friend and I had to be out in Service with my parents the next morning, no matter how late we stayed up. My Step dad would call my friends house to make sure I was in bed at 9 pm and call again at 7 am to make sure I was up and again at 8:30 to make sure I was ready for Service.

-I was to have as little contact as possible with worldy kids from school. I was not permitted to go to any of their homes and the we not to come to our home. I was in a world of hurt when my parents came to pick me up and *gasp* I was talking to a cute worldly girl. (Water Boy -Girls are the Devil!!!)

-I didn't get to buy my first CD till after I moved out (5 years ago)

-No hooking up with friends, no going to the mall, four wheeling or anything that young JW's did.

-Not aloud to cuss as in saying Jeez, Gosh, Man and Darn.

-Every Vacation that we ever had revolved around an assembly, if it wasn't for Conventions we wouldn't have ever traveled.

Spectre

I see a topic like this and its hard for me to even read some of the posts as it brings up such bad memories. I like reading all the posts but I just can't bring myself to start typing.

Joel Wideman

All the usual stuff, plus I wasn't allowed to defend myself. Turn the other cheek, and all that. It made me an easy target, of course, so I just made sure she never heard about it.

Cygnus

Not very strict. There was more of an unspoken "understanding" between us kids and them that we wouldn't do "bad" things, or that we'd join the ministry school, or that we wouldn't date unbelievers. But when I was a kid (8-13) I was allowed to play sports with neighborhood kids and if my parents met theirs I could even go to their houses to play. I could always tell my dad regretted not celebrating holidays and birthdays, and had a love of sports - we'd play basketball or football all the time and he'd show me patterns and moves. My parents never disallowed worldly kids to come to our house to play. My dad to this day regrets raising us as JWs (right dad? he reads this board) but I tell him he wasn't so bad and only did what he thought was right and what else can a person do?

edit to add: yes, no water guns or cowboys and indians, and no organized after school activities. My dad didn't like hearing "jeez" or "holy moses" and expected our behavior to be good so as to maintain our reputation. All in all not too bad. We always watched the Smurfs or "violent" cartoons of the early '80s (Wondercats and Transformers anyone?). They never browbeat us to go out in field service. I can see now how tough it was being a parent, making all those decisions and worrying all those worries, and I could never do it. I give my parents, to this very day, all the credit and love in the world.

lola28

Richie it is teenage mutant ninga turtles, super as far as I know was never a part of their name.

and now I have the theme song stuck in my head...

Darth Yhwh

lola28, lay off Richie would you. He already said that he wasn't allowed to watch the cartoon or play with the toys. Your rubbing salt into his wounds.

If raised JW - or in while young - how strict were your parents?

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