Hi I'm new here. I have read many post on here about abuse that goes on in the Kingdom Hall. One abuse I use to see involved the denial of the bathroom to children during meetings.
In the Kingdom Hall I attended like most expected children to sit still for two hours during the meetings. At ours even going to the bathroom was discouraged. Little kids were expected to hold it until the end. Of course only the die hard Witnesses enforced this as most went during the songs. I remember seeing kids being taken to the back and spanked because they could not sit still or complained about having to pee. Even more disturbing they were brought back with a full bladder and a sore bottom which made it even harder for them to sit still. I seen kids taken out two or three times because the first spanking did not work. I remember one little girl wetting her pants. Another at the end of the meeting left without taking her son to the bathroom. I remember him crying pointing to the restroom as he was brought outside and then spanked when they got to the car. I guess the mother wanted to punish him by making him hold it even longer. I have not been a whiteness for 15 years but this still disturbs me to this day to think about it? Has anyone seen this or had this happen to them?
Were you allowed to use the bathroom during meetings?
by ericr 24 Replies latest jw friends
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ericr
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blondie
I never saw anyone made to sit for 2 hours without being allowed to go to the restroom. Most jws went during the song between the meetings. There was always a mad dash to the restroom then, but by adults including parents. What the rule was in our area was that a parent had to accompany the child to make sure that they took care of business and came right back and did not:
- Wad up toilet paper and see who could get it to stick to the ceiling
- Splash water on each other
- See what they could flush down the toilet
- Turn on the water and then leave waiting for the flood
- Pee on the walls
Blondie
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MadTiger
This meant a lot to ya, huh?
LOL.
Nice first post. Welcome.
You pointed out some examples where the kids were wronged, but there are at least as many, if not double in number, examples where the child is trying to get a change of scenery, and/or cause a little mischief. -
Effervescent
This sounds strange, but it depended on the "spiritual strength" of the parents in my area.
More easy going, weaker in the faith parents allowed their children to go to the restroom, and the children usually did, multiple times. This was generally very much frowned upon. Stricter parents, (like mine, lucky me) did not let their children use the restroom, even during the song. You were expected to use the restroom right before meeting started, and wait until meeting was over to go again. This was not negotiable and we were smacked if we persisted in asking. There had been several special needs parts that basically told parents that children can't hear the meeting in the bathroom, and are missing out on spiritual food, and that there was no reason they couldn't wait.
My parents took great pride in the fact their children were motionless zombies during the meetings, unless of course we were commenting.
Just another level of control.
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Bonnie_Clyde
Parents were to asked to watch their children at home to see if they had to use the bathroom every 15 minutes or so. If they could go two hours without using the bathroom at home, it should be the same at the Kingdom Hall.
I remember a District Overseer commenting about the "old days" when we had rented halls (sometimes they were pretty shabby). He went to a "hall" that had no bathroom facility and the closest bathroom was one block down the street at a gas station. He kind of snickered and said, "Needless to say, there weren't many people getting up to go to the bathroom, especially on a cold day."
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blondie
Eff, in this area all the restrooms are wired for sound and the kids can hear the meeting, and have been since I was a kid, many moons ago
Blondie (55)
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Bonnie_Clyde
BTW, welcome to the forum....
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veen
A girl i knew once wet herself during the closing prayer of a circuit assembly, probably because it went on forever. She was stood in front of me and you could hear the fluid hitting the floor because of the relative silence. She was about 14-15. We used to call her 'fivehead' because she had a large forehead. But not to her face.
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sspo
I've seen in more than one kingdom hall that speakers in the sister's bathroom would be turned off because they didn't want them
to stay a long time and associate in the bathroom.
Pee and run
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WTWizard
Fine. If they take the bathroom away during the meetings so they can have the people listening to the whole program, then they should just pee on the floor. And I mean pulling down their pants and going right in the middle of the floor. That ought to make for a nice show, and a nice mess that ought to ruin a few carpets. And it will probably mean the end of that rule in short order.