KM Meeting tonight guilt trip for late comers

by Mattieu 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  sir82

  Articles such as these are written by men who have their laundry done for them, the cooking done for them, housecleaning done for them, banking done for them, car maintenance done for them. Their medical care is short walk down the hallway. They have no children, their job is done by 5:00 PM every night and they attend a congregation a few minutes away.

  With all of their mundane needs cared for by an army of servants, er, volunteers, of course they can make it to the meeting 20 minutes early.

  What gets me is how utterly out of touch they are. Their thinking is, "Look, I can make it early to the meetings, even with all the 'heavy responsibilities' I carry...so why can't these other slackers do it too?"
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  moshe

  The meetings are the biggest drag to having family time- little kids sleep on the KH floor, the sleep in a chair, they miss doing homework, they miss normal playtime, meals rushed, late to bed. Guilt for never doing enough- the sooner this bad dream is over for JW's, the better.
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  Farkel

  :I don’t have her KM with me, but it mentioned that being late is something that should not be a regular occurrence and that we should be early to sit down and be ready to be taught by Jehovah.

  That's strange since EVERY end-time prediction the religious leaders who complain about the R&F being late has not only been merely late, but has been a no-show. And it's not just been a "regular occurrence," either. It's so guaranteed you can set your watch by it.

  Farkel
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  WTWizard

  I have seen the same problem, where the front seats are the ones that are open for late comers. But, this is because most people really only grudgingly go to boasting sessions and do not want to sit directly in front of where the hounders are going to see them, not because of any arrangements. I always liked to sit somewhere near the middle myself, and off to one side, so I would not be directly in their line of sight.

  What I have seen is to the effect of 20% of the witlesses are early (being defined as being in the building with their seats reserved discretely before any mention of the boasting session is made). Another 60% come just in time (as defined as coming into the building sometime during the introduction, or still looking for their seat when the introduction comes). The other 20% are blatantly late (they are not in the building until after the first of the talks is in progress). Poor organization is cited as the reason--but, if you have children that do not want to attend the boasting session, and you get off work at 5:30 or 6 PM, I do not see how they can consistently be on time.

  As with being there at all, I believe more people would make the sincere effort of being there on time if the value of doing so exceeded the cost. With people having to bring children in, after not being at home from work until well after 5, the cost can get pretty high. If the value does not exceed that cost, people are not going to find it worth the effort--and often they are late (or they don't go at all).

  Yes, if they are going to start harassing people for being late, I recommend not going at all.
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  wobble

  My old Congo that I walked away from, was terrible for late-comers. One twonk of a visiting speaker stopped each time someone came in late,and let them sit and settle, he was an A-hole, he did it to show them up, but there were so many he had to give up doing it Tee Hee.

  We had C.O's give us talks on it, the lot, made no difference. the funny time was when the clocks changed and we "lost" an hour, lots would turn up well late, having forgotten to change their clock, and the meeting was over Ha Ha Ha.

  Most of them didn't mind though ,they were nearly all in it just as a social club.

  Love

  Wobble
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  jookbeard

  our old circuit and cong was made up of many from The West Indies and some from the African Sub Continent and our coloured friends were dreadful timekeepers sometimes only a tenth of some congs were in attendance from the start with the remaining 9/10'ths coming in late, it was an often quoted joke that "they would be late for their funeral" no matter how many local needs talks were addressed to the problem they still maintained their dreadful timekeeping.
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  Mad Sweeney

  Did anyone else's meeting part have the brother continually trying to convince himself and the congregation that the FDS isn't making rules here but that these are practical and loving suggestions?