We went to the meeting last night... (page 3)

undercover

if child or baby makes noise escorted to back room??? NO!!!!! wot!!!!!!! do you mean they would lovingly ask you to take the child to settle him/her down??

I cant believe im hearing this....

I sense some sarcasm here... (maybe not...saw a later post by AE that explains her thought further)

A crying baby being taken out is one thing, but what's not really covered in this thread is that children, including infants, were to be completely quiet and following along as best they can during the meeting. Of course infants can't follow along, but it was counseled that toys were not to be brought into the hall, even infant toys that keep babies occupied.

Now, you try to keep a baby, toddler or even a 5 year old still in his seat for two hours without something to keep him occupied other than a picture of a dinosaur in an old green NWT bible.

But it doesn't end there. If a parent took a child to the back because they were being fussy, they weren't supposed to camp out back there. They were supposed to take them back, discipline them and then return. As one CO put it...children should not be trained to think that the back room is a fun place to go...they should learn to fear it, because it means they were misbehaving.

What it boils down to is that the Society refuses to accept what most other churches and schools learned generations ago...children have a limited attention span and cannot be expected to remain still and quiet the same as an adult (hell most adults can't either). That's why they created different settings for children, so they can learn at their pace and the parents can enjoy the service without distraction.

For the Society it isn't so much teaching children as it is indocrtinating them.

angel eyes

They proberbly were worried what others would say, but hello, its a baby what on earth do they exspect. Yes if the child is in distress then its loving to take him/ her somehwere quiet to settle them but not to be asked to remove the child. And as for talking about discipling for a 2month old baby,or even for when the child is older.....thats between the wife and her head. These are the brothers who will be counselled by Jehovah, he doesnt overlook a single thing. I wish id have been there, im not argumentative but its good for the brothers to see both sides,not just the side of the ones who complain about the noise but the ones who could be stumbled by such an unloving act. Awwww i love kids and i loved spending time with them at the hall and on the ministry, we really had such fun :)

angel eyes

undercover,no i wasnt being sarcastic,glad you saw that. I re read what id put and yes it could have come across that way...it truly wasnt meant to.

Surely things have changed now though? Are you talking about years ago?? 70's?? A c/o said the back hall is to be feared???

undercover

Are you talking about years ago?? 70's?? A c/o said the back hall is to be feared???

That was the attitude and counsel the entire time I was in...from the 60s through the late 90s. More than one elder made comments about the back room not being a playground or how children should fear being taken out.

I remember one elder taking his granddaughter out and beating the living shit out of her...for making noise during the WT study. I was early in my fade and was starting to see things differently and seeing his actions embarrassed and angered me. I regret to this day even, not saying something to him about his abuse.

Before that, I was an uberdub doing everything I could to be loyal. I was an attendant and I remember asking parents, on more than one occasion, to take noisy kids out. It usually wasn't recieved very well. Now I see what an ass I must have been.

angel eyes

Yer i know first hand it was overly strict years ago for infants, I had to endure alot thanks to so called JW, they clearly werent jw though because Jesus was never like that, but i guess thats why i dont look at the people now....

I totally wouldnt ever allow it to happen in a congregation im ever in.

trebor

That was the attitude and counsel the entire time I was in...from the 60s through the late 90s...

Please allow me to add that same attitude and "counsel" was in place in the halls I attended (I left the Watchtower Society controlled organization in mid 2008).

The requirements and expectations placed on children and ther parents is both fustrating and unrealistic.

But this is the Watchtower Society were are talking about...No big surprise there.

-Trebor

twinkle toes

As a young teenager I loved taking other people babies to the back of the hall. The mothers often had other toddlers to care for and appreciated a break. I would just stand back there and play with them or rock them if they were small. In fact there was almost a race between the young girls and the older women as to who would get to the babies first.Now looking back I wonder if some of those people were just trying to get out of having to listen.

As a mother now I can't imagine wasting any time standing at the back of the hall with my children. it seems stupid and cruel. They have to spend so much of their lives sitting and paying attention why not let them be free while they are so young. I went to the memorial 2 years ago with my 2 year old and hated it. No more. I can decline taking the emblems at home.

civicsi00

We used to sit in the back room and let our son play around. He used to love just crawling and walking around that we could care less about sitting up front.

truthseekeriam

All JW's know we are encouraged to to keep the babies quite or take them to the back room.

I noticed some parents would rather be in the back room hanging out with the other mothers(that was me) Others took the hard approach of insisting

their baby get trained to sit quite for 2 hours if it meant whacking them on their little legs as needed then so be it.

I remember one mother who was really against hitting her children absolutely lose it at one meeting when she seen that sister whacking her baby, she got up and walked over to one of the elders tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the back of the hall. It was the drama of the new mothers in that hall.

willyloman

What it boils down to is that the Society refuses to accept what most other churches and schools learned generations ago...children have a limited attention span and cannot be expected to remain still and quiet the same as an adult...

There is definitely a "childen should be seen and not heard" attitude prevalent at KHs, and the above statement is true.

The reason is because the WT is an End-Time religion and was never designed to last for more than a few decades at most. As a result, they never wanted to waste any time working out details of mundane matters such as child-care arrangements. These "temporary" practices evolved into traditions and no one is more tradition-bound that the Watchtower Book Club.

We went to the meeting last night...

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