If a parent has parenting skills, they can bring up a child properly in spite of being in a cult.
Being Brought Up As A Jehovah's Witness---Was It A "BAD" Upbringing?
by minimus 48 Replies latest jw friends
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Quentin
No....
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Midget-Sasquatch
Minimus
I'd say that the skills are necessary but not sufficient. Usually because the parents let the cult's demands over-ride the child's healthy need to find their own identity even if that means it'll stray from the cult's ideal drone.
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joelingeorgia
did my parents beat me? no. was I taught the value of honesty and justice? yes.
did we bond like a normal family? no. I blame this on the guilt that my dad felt for something he never
admitted to me but just alluded to from time to time. Our finances were torn asunder when dad had to stop
selling tobacco warehouses in the early 70s. So that changed his life course tremendously. We never
spent time together except for witness stuff. So, like I say, we never bonded like many families do.
So, I guess there was good and bad. Not sure that it was any better or worse than other families I
know that were not witnesses. I don't think it is as simple as being a witness. It is how you allow
being a witness to affect you.
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joelingeorgia
did my parents beat me? no. was I taught the value of honesty and justice? yes.
did we bond like a normal family? no. I blame this on the guilt that my dad felt for something he never
admitted to me but just alluded to from time to time. Our finances were torn asunder when dad had to stop
selling tobacco warehouses in the early 70s. So that changed his life course tremendously. We never
spent time together except for witness stuff. So, like I say, we never bonded like many families do.
So, I guess there was good and bad. Not sure that it was any better or worse than other families I
know that were not witnesses. I don't think it is as simple as being a witness. It is how you allow
being a witness to affect you.
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stillajwexelder
I know a family who were raised as witnesses. The kids used to say "lets play beatings" - not lets play "meetings" - very sad really
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caliber
For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.” Life is never about win ,win but win some , lose some. Try to minimize regret.. it is the road
to inner contentment !
Never allow regret to strifle your present or future
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parakeet
Minimus: If a parent has parenting skills, they can bring up a child properly in spite of being in a cult.
Unless the child is injured and in need of a life-saving blood transfusion. Then those parents with all those great parenting skills become murderers.
No child can be "properly" reared in a cult.
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Pistoff
For me it was a mixed bag; I grew up with a dread of street drugs, but became involved in heavy drinking/alcoholism; I think that the cloistered nature of the WT protected me from some other negative influences. And I do miss the dead certainty about the future, even though it was a false hope/certainty; the close friendships were real enough.
But on the other side, there was no way I could even think about going to college, it still sticks in my craw, and it was ingrained in me to never think more than a few years ahead because of the anticipation of Armageddon. I was raised with the male oriented view of the witnesses, the headship thing; it has taken a while to shed.
While some would say that it was protection and a benefit, many other less restrictive religions did the same thing without the damaging side effects.
P