How was it when you were a JW as a kid? (page 3)

Vidiot

I was not particularly happy.

Trying to explain that to my parents didn't work, because their response was almost always just "pray-study-associate-attend-preach"... but all that does is tell a kid that if he's doing all that and still isn't happy, he's the one with the problem.

The idea that someone could spend 30-odd years being unhappy because he was a dutiful JW simply could not be considered.

Ucantnome

It was a mixture of good and bad. Hated the meetings and assemblies. Didn't mind witnessing at school. Hated giving talks. Wanted to be baptised. Done pioneer days occasionally with parents, so so. Went out on my own on return visits occasionally when I was 10 and older. I remember being at the barbers just before Christmas when I was about 7/8 and knew he was going to ask me about Christmas and I felt I had to give some sort of witness. No parents just me and my brother. I did. Dreaded getting up in the chair . Barber shop was full.

stuckinarut2

I thought I had lots of friends...but they were just people who shared a common faith...not real friends.

Childhood was full of Fear, Obligation, Guilt, Embarrasment and Shame.....

Being viewed as "odd" by all the other kids, yet being told that we were "special and unique" as gods only chosen ones really messes with a young mind!

Bonsai

Being a born-in sucked! Ruined my school life. I couldn't stop looking around at the other faces in the classroom, thinking that they were, in all likelihood, about to be consumed by fire, smashed by burning hail and finished off by sword-wielding angels on white horses. It's a miracle that after 30+ years of this madness I'm not in a mad house somewhere staring listlessly off into space with drool dribbling down my chin.

Tenacious

Hardly

Ever

Laughed

Long

Simon

I thought I had lots of friends...but they were just people who shared a common faith...not real friends

Amen to that.

joey jojo

In the 80's we had religious instruction at high school and for one hour per week, an old-school, fire and brimstone elder and me would sit outside somewhere (because there wasn't enough students in his class to justify giving us a classroom) and go through the yearbook or some other article that he chose.

In my final year of high school, religious instruction classes were not mandatory because of extra exams etc.

After missing just one of his classes, the elder caught me at the next meeting and informed me, 'I'm probably going to die at Armageddon if I continue missing his class'. I was 14 yrs old.

True story.

This is above and beyond the daily grind of being a teenage witness and my experience is very similar to that expressed by many other posters on this topic.

I could go on and on.

How was it when you were a JW as a kid?