while reading through some threads, i sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if i had stayed a jw and had kids.
i now have a 23 month old son, that's very active, i can not begin to imagine what torture it would be for both of us to attend meetings or go out in field service.
i would be expected to keep him still the whole time without toys, snacks, books or any sort of distraction at all, except maybe the my book of bible stories.
I was a single mom of two working a full-time job and often a part-time as well. my son, who was naturally active had a hard time sitting still and i thought i was doing well by "training" him to sit for long periods of time.
all i know is that i don't miss the constant rushing to meetings or conventions. we were always a few minutes late and because of that, we were punished by being paraded up the aisle to sit in the front row over and over again.
most meetings i went to, children were brought to the washrooms in the back to be disciplined.
often i could hear a child yell or cry due to the spanking given by the parent.
people in the hall would have that look on their face meaning that it was alright to discipline a child by spanking him.
i remember being dragged for entire weekends as a young child in "service" with my super dub/special pio dad. we were to stand at attention, not dawdle between doors, not get distracted by anything we saw, not complain about hunger, thirst, being tired or "nature calling." those were the rules from infancy on in the 60's.
many a householder took pity upon us kids and offered us a glass of water during 90+ degree heat wearing full dresses, crenolins, socks and patent leather shoes. i knew exactly what they were thinking: "what kind of father drags his kids up and down the entire street during a heat wave fully dressed to the nines when they should be out playing?"
at the KH we didn't act up because we were just expected to behave. we were always treated as little adults and not children. we did know the fate of others who crossed the line and got rushed to the back to get their alotment of smacks.
i also remember severely cutting my foot just before the memorial and instead of getting stitches, my parents just wrapped me up and took me to the memorial instead. i still have the scar.
i just thought id create a thread for all the great saying and phrases you have heard.
my favourite is "bingo wings"- a name given to the chunky flesh that seems to be trying to escape the arms of (usually) older women.
best viewed at bingo, when they throw their arms in the air and should 'house'.. any more for any more?
"bingo wings?" i thought it was "kimono arms"
time for tricep kickbacks/extensions (of the female in her forties class)
... and evolution, by the way.
if we were designed by an intelligent creator, why the heck do we light-skinned people get burnt to death when the sun is shining?
not very intelligent design... .
my boyfriend is half german and half italian. he has light brown hair with red in it/blue eyes and he turns red as a lobster in the sun, but then it turns a brown colour later on. he keeps taking his shirt off all the time and he got sunburned for two days in a row. his legs are very white in comparison and now he has two very dark moles between his toes. he won't go to a doctor to have them checked either/ that's what i worry about. his kids are very fair; their mom has light brown hair and blue eyes too; the kids have either red or blonde hair and all have blue eyes. i worry about them all.
any who have checked out snopes.com, know that it is a very effective baloney detection device.
it is amazing how many phoney stories end up coming some so many credible sources.
for the dubs, the urban legend serves an important function of protecting and bolstering their faith.
I also hated those ' I left a tract up a donkeys arse and the vet became a dub' ones
how 'bout the one where the bird uses a shredded tract as nesting material and an ailing patient watched as the bird made the nest. when he was feeling better and the bird had left the nest, he unraveled the nest and pieced together the tract. upon reading the tract, he immediately ran out to become a baptized witness or some such malarky. chances are after several weeks as a nest, between the bird poo and the elements, it would hardly be legible. unless the society is using holy ink.
i have just finished an incredibly long conversation with my mother which was tense in parts and hard going but i feel as though i have made a break-through; i was incredibly delicate in my approach given her 30 years inside the borg but again i think i have made some headway.. we covered the un scandal and i asked whether she had heard anything about the wts affiliation with the un as an ngo; she surprisingly had heard nothing about it; i read the guardian articles to her and she was silent....i half expected to hear her hang up the phone but she continued to stay on.
she tried to justify it initially but slowly i allowed her to reach her own conclusions and she has agreed to let me send the information upto her; i.e the guardian newspaper articles and the ngo press release.. we covered the child abuse policies and lack off protection for children and covered the highly legalistic approach taken in the very little policy they have...which is mainly about self preservation.
i asked her whether she knew that the society in the us are being sued by a number of different people for the organisations failure to protect children from abuse and i asked if i could get the proof without using 'apostate' sources, i.e primary sources such as court judgements etc, would she accept the information?
congrats on your success; baby steps are progress too! i wish i could get to my mother but she is totally under the thumb of my super-dub dad. they are in their 70's now and recognizing their own mortality it seems; i have yet to tell them about my DA yet. my mom has always had mental health issues (probably 90% JW guilt driven) so i don't want to make it any worse. i figure if they are such major players in da troof, surely the jw grapevine will get to them 500+ miles away. . .
as i had stated in previous posts, they refuse to get the internet because of possible "apostate" info jumping out at them like the bogie man. that means no emails or IMing from me or grandkids, 2.
Good Luck!
you know in this time of the end, we would be wise to examine our window-washi. . . oh whoops!
for example: we had a 'faithfull' brother getting older and confused.
when something did not really went as he liked it (didn't get the answer etc) he shouted very loudly 'god doom me in the hell!
one time i had to do the closing prayer on the midweek meeting.
5' 4" ELDERLY elder with very bad combover, full black hair sprouting from each ear (shampoo models would be shamed) and plaid bullet-proof polyester suit spent about 7 minutes overkilling a spider with a rolled up watchtower (probably delivered about 19 ear-splitting full blows) then proceeded to do the twist on it with his shoe.
for example: we had a 'faithfull' brother getting older and confused.
when something did not really went as he liked it (didn't get the answer etc) he shouted very loudly 'god doom me in the hell!
one time i had to do the closing prayer on the midweek meeting.
there was a time when a brother giving the talk on "Boaz" kept pronouncing it "Bozo" provided 5 minutes of amusement out of an otherwise dreary MS.
for example: we had a 'faithfull' brother getting older and confused.
when something did not really went as he liked it (didn't get the answer etc) he shouted very loudly 'god doom me in the hell!
one time i had to do the closing prayer on the midweek meeting.
i was about 6 years old at the time and giving a talk. my dad always used to cross his legs with one ankle over the opposite thigh. well being a good little copy cat. i got up on the main platform and proceeded to cross my legs in that same fashion which made a marvelous little "table" to place my materials on. apparently my mother almost had a heart attack as you could clearly see my underwear from the audience.
she told me never to sit like that again.
