My wife and I, both out of the religion for nearly twenty years, live in the same border town as our 44 year old only son. We have scant contact with our numerous JW relatives, although a handful of clever "double life" nieces and nephews socialize with our son.
We care for our six year old grandson weekdays while our single parent son makes a living. We've been infinitely better grandparents than we were parents, primarily because of our exit from a high control cult, but also because of life experience. We've successfully conveyed a sense of being loved, security and self-esteem to this young one, who was rescued from a desperate, drug-challenged early life with his bio mother. I should add that we used Christmas as an excuse to buy him a laptop during his kindergarten year. Somehow, without much help from us, he learned to read in short order.
The son calls daily and we typically share notes about our strategies with the young one. Sometimes I'm asked to supplement or reinforce a concept our son is trying to convey. A couple days ago, my son said: "Dad, Jack and I have been talking about the difference between a theory and a fact. We touched on the big bang theory and the theory of creation. He should know both, right? Oh, by the way, could you teach him the basic Bible stories? I don't want him growing up not at least knowing the details of what other kids are being taught."
This was new ground for me and enlightening. I explained the Big Bang and the concept of a creator without pushing either theory on the grandchild. I found myself also explaining that each church feels "their God" is the actual Creator, the "true god," referring to the Baptist Church across the street, the Pentecostal Church on the next block, the Catholic Church downtown and the Jehovah's Witnesses who come around from time to time.
What a relaxing, unemotional discussion it was. Jack laughed at the thought that each church thinks their god is the true one. After about a half hour of semi-serious talk, he said: "Grandpa, do you think I could play Minecraft now?"