That's why when you posted the other day about your mother I mentioned that I can relate to you. I know about the anger and self doubt too. I'm right there with ya!
Are JW kids allowed to be kids?
by tall penguin 40 Replies latest jw friends
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MinisterAmos
No! They are treated like adults when they are kids, and threated like kids when they are adults.
You win the thread
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Tyrone van leyen
I agree, that's a very profound statement!
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DanTheMan
The worst part of it was field service. I wasn't raised a JW, but I remember one boy at a congo that I attended for some time who had learning difficulties at school, no friends his age at the KH, and was very, well, unattractive and socially awkward. But his beta-male elder dad, ever-clinging to that precarious position that low-status elders hold, absolutely *drove* this poor kid out in service. And he hated it. It was painful to watch.
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Balsam
No they are not allowed to be kids. I raised 3 sons in it and they all have told me they felt very restricted and never allowed to have any real fun like other kids.
Balsam
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tall penguin
Ty, your post really hit home.
I've felt sad today thinking of the little girl I never got to be. And thinking of all the kids I left behind in the org. I miss them dearly.
tall penguin -
Hortensia
not allowed to be children, taught that every human feeling is a sin, dragged out in mind-numbingly boring field service, made to stand out as different at school, dress weird, chastised for everything, watched relentlessly by everyone in the congregation, all of whom loved to pounce on a little mistake and make it a major crime. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I realized later that the degree of rebellion reflects the degree of repression. Many JW kids I grew up with became promiscuous, sold drugs, ran off and disappeared. We all developed amazing deceitful powers - one person at school, another at the kingdom hall. It took me a long time to leave, and I faded rather than rebelling, but I was pretty promiscuous for a while. I have to admit that being promiscuous was just plain fun, I don't regret it at all, but it isn't a good lifestyle for the long run. I have a nice marriage now and am happy in it. But, you are right, we were deprived of a childhood.
I remember a demonstration at a convention, the mother teaching her very tiny children to sit still at the meeting. They recommended practicing sitting still every day, a little longer each time, until the kid could sit still for two hours. Isn't that just plain bizarre!!! Little kids need to run around and scream, hard though that may be on adult ears.
However, it wasn't fun to stand out as different at school, but I appreciate it now. I don't care what anyone thinks of me, it doesn't bother me to be different, it actually makes me feel free. What the JWs didn't expect was that teaching me to defy convention and think logically would make me turn against them one day!!! using the reasoning skills they taught me, I could figure out what a load of crap it all is. And I don't care what they think of me - or how they glare at me. Before my mother died, when I went to visit her, any JWs I ran into at her house always made a point of telling me what a wonderful person my mother was, and then they would glare at me in a meaningful way. I would just smile and ignore them. It was kind of fun in fact to watch their little games of trying to make me feel ashamed or guilty. Now that she has died, I don't have to have any dealings at all with any of them and I don't miss it a bit.
So some of the training, unpleasant though it was, paid a dividend in the end!
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Tyrone van leyen
The degree of rebellion reflects the degree of repression. How true! I think however, you are too kind when you credit them with your reasoning skills. Who's to say we wouldn't be even better at reasoning had we not had our heads filled with all that garbage. At the same time I can see the need to try and pull something positive from an absolutely hopeless situation.
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Tyrone van leyen
Tall Penguin, I feel that way every day of my life and still wonder who I am, what I could have been, and what am I supposed to be now, with all this baggage.
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DannyHaszard
Above WT 'Paradise lost to paradise regained' aka the "paradise book" was published in 1958 i was born to JW pioneer parents in 1957 so this was my first 'theocratic' coloring book
Above WT 'Paradise lost to paradise regained' aka the "paradise book" was published in 1958 i was born to JW pioneer parents in 1957 so this was my first 'theocratic' coloring book