I don't post much, I guess I usually just don't have anything interesting to say. (Didn't comment much at meetings either.)
Anyway, been in a bit of a quandry about what to do about holidays. I want to raise my children as "normally" as possible. We live in a conservative midwestern US city in a middle class area. My husband and I are a couple of JW dropouts, both raised in it. The difference is he still believes on some levels because that is what he was taught. He just doesn't care enough to do anything about it. The ironic thing is his mother has also turned into a meeting skipping doubter (never thought that would happen). My question is will they automatically read me "as no-longer one of JW's" if we start celebrating holidays. We've already celebrated our birthdays, handed out candy on Holloween (gasp!), and had the in-laws over for turkey on Thanksgiving. I'm thinking next year we'll do Christmas. Not so much as a religious holiday, but more as a social holiday. I think that holidays and observances serve as a way to connect communities and provide a shared reference point.
The only reason we're even having any problems with any of this is because my parents are still in (big time). They recently moved to our city. (My husband and I discussed moving away because of them, but we like it here and were here first.) My parents actually stayed with us for a couple of months, we didn't hear one word of "encouragment" during that time (probably because I would have told them to stay with their "friends"). Now they are starting to bug me. It is amazing how if you know the arguement they are going to make, you can shut them down with out saying much. (i.e. Mom: The weather is so bad, hurricanes and other disasters, the end must be near. Me: Well you know the sky is falling. followed by blank stare.) She even went so far as to bring the service group to my house last week without calling first. I would think that my snotty comments would get my point across, along with coming right out and saying that we are not raising our kids as Witnesses, so no thank you for the Bible Story Book.
My parents will not shun me if I am DF, they don't shun my DF sister. Also other than my mom occasionally babysitting for me they do not see my children unless we are there. (My dad's nuts, and I have serious issues with their parenting style when I was growing up.) I will probably loose contact with one brother, and possibly another brother and sister. Don't really care about any old "friends". Made peace with that chapter of my life. The only loose end would be my dad said something about grandparents having rights when I told him no thank you for the BS book. I do know of one family where the grandparents have the children for two weeks during the summer because they went to court.
My fear is that they would try to do something like that if I went from being a passive-aggressive snott to being an all out appostate. Then the question is, Is it worth it?