Current or exJW parents: What did your congregation do for kids?

by truthseeker 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  truthseeker

  I'd like to know what your congregation did (or did not do) for children of various ages.

  Were there any playdates for your kids? Did you have children's parties?

  In my old hall, the elders and moms would rent a hall out and organise parties for the kids but as we all grew older we were pretty much left to make our own entertainment.

  A friends congregation used to have "Talent Night" but this has gone the way of the dodo.

  Were you in a hall with very few children? How did you manage?

  What did you do so your kids would have association?
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  Casper

  My old hall was full of uptight witnesses. Nothing much was ever done just for the children.

  I remember them going bowling a few times, and once they organized a skating party.

  My husband and I took a few out to eat now and then, or would have them over to socialize. Our daughters were young at the time,

  so we did have several slumber parties at our house over the years.

  Cas
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  Honesty

  The same thing every JW congregation does for the kids...

  screws with their minds.
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  Tired of the Hypocrisy

  Not much. They used to SHOOSH us, hit us, stifle us, and beat us about the head and shoulders with their lame teachings.
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  chickpea

  there was a group of teen boys who got together as a band.... my son was drummer....

  several times we rented the local "meeting place" and bought dozens of pizzas to give these kids a chance to be "normal"....

  i am pretty sure only one stayed "in"

  we had a lot of kids... i mean lots..... several families including ours had 4 kids, a few had 5 or 6.... i only remember two families with just one kid.....

  we did outings and some sledding events, but it wasnt often and it wasnt enough.....
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  aSphereisnotaCircle

  Growing up dub, I remember lots of congregation parties and events.

  But In the eighties the elders in our hall put the kabosh on one event after another.

  It got to where the only thing that was allowed was weddings and the occasional, modest, not to many people in attendance, anniversay party, uhh I mean get together.

  I have two adult children, born in the early eighties, I can remember one event that was aimed at kids. A sister at our hall had a party for the kids where they could come dressed up as clowns. That's it, nothing else other then meetings, assemblies, service etc. etc.
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  crapola

  When my daughter was little there were several other girls her age so she always has playmates but the cong. did'nt do much at all as she became a teenager.
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  Hope4Others

  I would have kid parties, cake balloons and games when my kids were young often. When they got older we would have dance parties, I'd slip

  down stairs once in a while to check on things, they had lots of fun. Oh course not all parents appreciated it. But I felt it was better than the teens sneaking around, booze

  etc under age.

  In the Congregation many sisters would get together and plan skating parties, hockey games, baseball games, picnics for the whole cong with all the kids

  we would rent ice at the curling rink for the adults occasionally. Meet out at the beach on the weekend big groups of us kids loved it.

  Wow I guess we really did a lot back then now that I think about it. I'm not sure what they do now though since we no longer attend.

  Cheers

  hope4others
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  Bring_the_Light

  But In the eighties the elders in our hall put the kabosh on one event after another.

  I NEVER understood this. Hanging out with worldlings was VERBOTEN (German, means forbidden) and hanging out with witnesses was viewed with EXTREME suspicion, suppression, monitoring and limiting.

  There was not a single event where someone didn't have an issue. I remember a couple people actually consider skipping or severly limiting their wedding reception because they "didn't want any drama" which there inevitably would, if they let witnesses in.

  If I was a cult leader, I'd have 3 meeting a week, parties the other 4. THAT's how you keep the sheeple happy. This "depress them until they obey" strategy backfires when you're competing against a world chock full of fun vices.