nowwhat wrote: Get the kids involved in the school sports teams .that helps alot in the transition.
... and/or music, and/or drama club, and/or any other extra-curricular activity they choose.
Seriously. Encourage this starting now.
Then start encouraging them to go to college - even a local Community/Junior College.
Start planning other family things to do on Saturdays and Sundays. Enough so they start missing Saturday Field Service one weekend and a Sunday meeting another weekend. The less JW-related activities they do, and the more 'normal' activities you provide for them, the better they will be able to start using their own critical thinking skills. At the very least, they will have better experiences to look back on than most of us who grew in staunch JW households.
Nice introductory post! Thanks for sharing.
I was a walk-away believer (got up in the middle of a Sunday talk because I felt a huge sense of hypocrisy from the platform and felt I was complicit with badness by sitting silent in my seat). I always thought that at some point in the future, the org would correct its' errant path and I would return at that time. Instead, 13 years later, I found Freeminds (Randy Waters' site) and JWN (This Site, owned and ran by Simon and Angharrad Green).
From this site (and Ray Franz's book Crisis of Conscience) THREE things convinced me the the JW organization would never right their wrong paths:
1. 607
2. Mexico/Malawi
3. UN NGO
These three things were deal-breakers for me. Grateful to learn "The Truth about the 'Truth'". Life is MUCH happier and much more precious with this important knowledge.
-Aude Sapere. (meaning: Dare to Know; Dare to Have Wisdom/Understanding; Dare to Think for Yourself.)