Raised a JW... did you have a childhood?

ignorance is strength

Personally I was quite serious at a young age.. there was no "boys will be boys" growing up. Personally I feel kind of cheated out of a childhood by an organization that forced you to think that "everything around you was going to be gone soon so you better grow up, start publishing, and giving talks." Did any of you experience a less than stellar childhood, especially because of the lack of holidays and socially-isolating religion gowing up?

Special K

Hey ignorance is strength:

Me too, I feel my childhood was a total cheat.

Being raised a in J.W.'s and going to school was horrible.

Made fun of in school, always picked on for not standing for the National anthem.

I hated school, because of being a J.W.

I became pretty much a loner at school, because I did not fit in due to the J.W. stuff.

Being a J.W. and school just sucks. They just don't go together.

Special K

Prisca

At the age of 7 I knew the difference between chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

I knew how to get to various parts of large State hospitals on my own (though I never had to).

When I was 11, I saw my mother die in front of me.

No, I don't think I had much of a childhood. JW stuff had less to do with it than other circumstances going on in my life at the time.

free will

i noticed a difference growing up. but, it never pained me. i knew i was different, but, i hung out with all the other "different" ones. so it didn't affect me a great deal. now, i wish some things were different but accept that that was the way it was. carpe diem now.

freedom96

Without question I lost out on many childhood memories. I think all of us who grew up as witnesses did.

It was especially hard as a kid, for we had to answer up to our classmates on subjects we didn't know the answers to or didn't agree with.

What I really missed I believe was high school sports, and dating. Both normal growing up experiences but of course forbidden.

Needless to say, holidays were tough too.

So much time wasted too. Time that would have been better spent doing homework, or better yet, playing.

Never even got to watch Saturday morning cartoons, for we were off to the Kingdom Hall.

I will not allow the past to dictate what happens in the future, though. I have a newborn, and he will get to experience so many wonderful things. Funny thing is, that he will not know any different. He will get to enjoy life's experiences and celebrations like everyone should have the chance to do anyway.

Valis

I think all that lead me to start lying actually, even as early as elementary school..."oh yeah I got one of those for xmas..."....I did whatever I could to do what I wanted.....In my junior year of HS I lied and stayed after school to play basketball..."studying did interfere with meetings, but hey...i was "studying"...eheh...not to mention young Ms. D. Gonzalez, good little JW girl that I yearned *desperately* for...we went to the library together and explored the reference section...eheeh....till she got ratted out by the other JW students...before then though, my parents worked a lot so many times as a youngster I got to take off for an adventure tale...when I wasn't babysitting my siblings anyway...sheesh...

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

Valis

. He will get to enjoy life's experiences and celebrations like everyone should have the chance to do anyway.

ah but for you the joy is compounded....it is for me anyway.

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

smurfette

My formative years were stunted at best, due to JW and not JW issues. I've decided that since I couldn't be a kid when I was a kid, I'll just be a big kid now. I have a huge nerdy toy collection and celebrate all holidays to the hilt.

((Hugs to all you guys it sounds like some of you had really awful childhoods, I'm sorry, I wish I could give them back to you.))

FreeToBeMe

Sure, just like everybody else in here I had a childhood. Like some in here it was also a JW childhood, with all the usual difficulties associated with being a part of an Organisation that in practice is highly critical of children and yet conversely, treats its membership as such.

Do I grieve the loss of my childhood? In a way I do, but what I am actually grieving is an illusion of how I would have liked it to have been. This illusion is based upon how I think other nonJW, or more libreal minded JW childhoods may have been, parties, friends, fun, freedom etc., etc., etc. The reality is somewhat different, as one previous poster has explicitly mentioned.... she knew the difference between chemotherapy and radiotherapy at a very young age, and watched as her mother died. Given the choice, I would rather contend with the abuse survived in my childhood. The reality is, at one level, it was a childhood, my childhood... it could have been better, it could have been worse, it was however simply my childhood. The fact I remember it means I did have one.

I may also grieve that I'm no longer a child, but that's a process that every adult person has to negotiate regardless of religious, political, philosophical ideals. Some negotiate this process well, some poorly, some like me reluctantly. Reality and illusion make strange bedfellows, however reality is difficult to accept at times, no problem... when it becomes painful I can indulge illusions and for a time allow myself to be the kid I would've liked to have been whilst getting on the floor and playing with my own children.

DID I have a childhood? That's not the question for me, it's more DO I have a childhood?. Simply yes. It's past is retained in my fallible memory and added to with present experiences.

blondie

Growing up in an abusive, alcoholic family precludes having a childhood. Having to take care of one's siblings will do that. The elders would say that the new system would change all that. I would say, "Oh, then I'm going to become a child again with good parents and live my childhood over?" Whether you believe in the paradise earth soon to come or not, we all just get one childhood.

But who says you have to be 5 years old to enjoy a childhood. Get out there and try and recapture that joy in life.

Blondie (who is going to go out and jump rope now)

Raised a JW... did you have a childhood?

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