Last year when we went to Mexico, we left my son with a relative who is a Witness. She promised not to take him to anything having to do with the religion, and when we got home, we found out that he was taken to a one day assembly. They brought it up in a family gathering, and were all proud with how I my two year old son behaved himself so well. I spoke up and said I asked them not to take him, and was irritated that they did. They were all shocked that I would make such a big deal out of it, still thinking somewhere in their mind that we must still think it is the right religion, even though we left a decade ago and are openly Wiccan. I explained to them that I was deeply disappointed in their choice and we never spoke to them or invited them over for six months. Finally they came by one day and apologized, and said if he was left with them again, they would never do something like that again. They were shocked at how much we saw the religion as poison and admitted that it troubled them into wondering what we know, that they do not. We explained that it was their search to find out, and that if they want to know, they wont have a hard time finding it. I make it a personally point not to "Apostate" preach, in that I learned a long time ago, that it more often then not, comes back to bite you and is not worth the effort.
Well a year later we are off to the Bahama's tonight, and again we are leaving my son with this person (she is my spouses sister), and this time we have a back-up. Rather then assuming that she will not take him to a Witness meeting, we have made arrangement for my spouses aunt to call up and check on him and is scheduled to take him each night of the meetings (We are gone for a week). She even admitted last night, when she came over to confirm some information, that she could tell how much we did not want him to go. My spouses family can be summed up in one word, "simple." They just do not grasp concepts like, people change in life and people move on. They see things as black and white, you live one way and you do not change. When people do change, they do not see or accept it, as it is to complex. I accept this, and have often been the one party to shake these people up and scare them at times with thought provoking questions and actions in our married life. Yet in the end, they are very simple minded and highly uneducated (my spouses father can barely read). So for them to see us treating their beloved religion like poison to my son, confuses them tenfold. I had to learn one more time, how extreme I have to be to get a point across to them. Fortunately, my side of the family is the polar opposite and my spouse has become like me and my side of the family. Which makes issues like this, much easier to get through their minds. Yet, I wonder, do family members of yours and even friends, kind of seem shocked sometimes with how much you treat that religion as poison?