Children Do Not Get Enough Sleep in Watchtower

by WTWizard 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    This past Memorial was an exercise in waste for most people. Drive to the Hall, fight for a parking space, get booted out of your seat, and then listen to a stale talk for 45 minutes. Then the big event: passing the plate of crackers and glass of spoiled grape juice. Finally there is the fight to get out of the hall after.

    For school children, this is another night when they don't get to bed until late. This past year, it was Monday. And Monday is a school night, meaning that these children are going to be up at 6:30 or so getting ready for school. Being that the sun doesn't go down until after 7, some congregations have to start their memorials as late as 9:00 PM. Occasionally, in northern latitudes and when the Memorial is April 15 or later, some congregations need to start as late as 10:00 PM. Imagine what time those children get home--I can imagine as late as 11:00 PM and even later. Remember, these are children that have to be up at 6:30 next morning for school.

    The Memorial is just one example of when children are up late. On a regular week, they will have the service meeting end at 9:15. The most common night for this is Thursday, which means that the children are going to be getting home as late as 10:00 PM or later on a regular Thursday night. And tests are popular on Fridays. Since one of the most important things in doing well on tests is adequate sleep the night before, it's no wonder these children are going to do poorly on tests.

    And that's on a regular night. Often we have company, usually about twice a year. The hounder-hounder (CO) comes in for the week. Now, twice during that week, you have meetings that let out at 9:15 or later (the children get home at 10:00 PM or later). And that's assuming it ends on time, which is often not the case. I have seen these meetings drone on until 10:30 PM, and it is a school night! This means the children are not going to get home until sometime after 11:00 PM. If they have a hounder's meeting that night, some children are not getting home much before midnight!

    This might not be much of a problem for high schoolers, many of whom are often up until midnight and later on school nights. But we are talking about all children here. This includes children that are in the first and second grades, who normally have bedtimes around 7 PM. Now, would you let your children stay up 4 or 5 hours past their bedtime the night before a major unit test? I hope not.

    The way this organization is set up is not meant for children. They don't give a &$*& that they have to be up for school, nor that they have tests and other school work to do. Staying up past your bedtime used to be a special treat, usually reserved for such as New Year's Eve or the last day of school, when it couldn't do any harm. But asking children to stay up past their bedtimes every week, and in some cases more than 3 hours past their bedtime, amounts to guaranteeing failure. If they have a test to take and they are tired, they are more likely to bomb it and flunk than if they have enough sleep the night before. This is yet another reason why this organization needs to come down.

  • merfi
    merfi

    This was always a huge sore point for me, too. I have three kids 'raised in the troof' until just over a year ago. They're 9, 11 and 13 and I always just HATED getting out of meetings so late on school nights, knowing the next morning would be a battle and that they'd be sleepy at school. Despite what the WT said, I was always and still am pro-education. Even at elementary level as that sets the routines for later. My poor kids were falling asleep Thurs nights in their seats and I just let them... screw what the elders thought. (but I did certainly find out what they thought -- they told me to keep them awake. Morons)

    I agree that this cult system is NOT kid-friendly, and in fact goes the way opposite. I guess maybe keeping them tired keeps them susceptible for the brainwashing, who knows.

    Stupid WTS...

    ~merfi

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    I wonder if it's to keep them stupid. After all, a ninth-grade physics project could prove that the Flood could not have made the mountains rise or push the sea basins down, since water is lighter than rock. If anything, the water would have just floated there on the rock, being pushed up by the heavier rocks.

    The idea is, keep the children sleepy at school, and they will not learn these things.

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    WTWizard..I was always tired as a DubKid..As far as I`m concerned,it`s child abuse..Idiot JW parents enforcing an Idiot WBT$ lifestyle...OUTLAW

  • Gayle
    Gayle

    The children get the brunt the most in so many negative ways with the WT cult: boring meetings all week,,door to door (very unstimlulating) suits & ties always for little boys (they grow up & leave JWdom and hardly will ever wear suits/ties again!), no birthdays,no holidays, can't have school friends, no school parties,,no extracurricular school activities, flag salute issues,,many can't do music programs for fear of patriotic & holiday songs, etc,etc. Very few leaders of JWs have ever had any children: GB, Bethelites, CO, DO and they push the rules to the parents who ignorantly follow to make their children follow empty rules. Then if the children got baptized, then later rebel or disagree then are df'd by everyone they've known and their families. Then, the children have an identity crises because they didn't get to be just kids and have their own hearts all along the way. The children suffer the most!! I was raised in it since 9 years old (in mid-50's) but left the WTS in mid-80's, raised all my children to have free minds (4 of 5 have graduated college, the fifth about half way done) I am now a proud grandma.

  • Adolfius
    Adolfius

    Aren't the children asleep just like everyone else at the meetings? Surely the Sunday morning watchtower marathon was always the perfect time to catch up on a little snooze.

    The eyes are open but the brain is in the land of nod.

  • garybuss
  • TheCoolerKing
    TheCoolerKing

    Certainly not a kid friendly organization at all. Aside from not getting any sleep during the week, my childhood weekends consisted of:

    1) Study my Field Service presentation after school on Fri. afternoons.
    2) Go to sleep early Fri. night, to wake up for Sat. morning Field Service.
    3) Read my Watchtower, for the Sunday meeting, after Field Service on Sat.
    4) Have our family meeting Sat. evening to go over the Watchtower that I just read, so I’m prepared for the Sunday Watchtower Study.
    5) Go to sleep early Sat. night so I can wake up early for the Sunday morning meetings.
    6) More Field Service on Sunday afternoon, after the Public Talk and Watchtower Study.
    7) Return home on Sunday evening and do all my homework for school.
    8) Go to sleep early on Sunday so I can wake up early for school.

    What a life! Then people ask me why I hated my childhood!!!

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    And it's even worse if the hounders keep making the parents wake up the children for sleeping during the meetings. Frequently the attendants are ordered by the lead hounder to do this; the hounder-hounder is often the reason for this because he will crack down on children sleeping during the meetings. Beatings, often with the dreaded wooden spoon, usually result as the child gets dragged in the back for the heinous crime of falling asleep during the meetings.

  • TheCoolerKing
    TheCoolerKing
    Beatings, often with the dreaded wooden spoon, usually result as the child gets dragged in the back for the heinous crime of falling asleep during the meetings.

    Oh yes, the dreaded beatings! At one of my congregations I remember one particular sister. Her four year old son would always get antsy on Thurs, during the Service Meeting. She would then proceed to take the child back to the restroom. I cringed every time I heard the poor kid screaming, as she wailed away on his backside. Here this boy was being abused for getting restless, while many of the adults in the Kingdom Hall were having problems staying awake!!!

    Really sick and twisted!!!

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