I can relate. I had a rather sad and lonely childhood with many missed opportunities. However, I was very good at acting happy and playing the good little JW kid... or else I knew Jehovah would bash my brains out when it started raining rocks at Armageddon, which was just weeks away.
Being A Borg Kid
by Pig 15 Replies latest jw friends
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wantstoleave
I can relate to this. I had similar experience, none my age in the hall or ones that were had their own cliques. Wasn't allowed to associate outside of school with 'worldly' people, so friendships were limited. Looking back, I can see how it hindered my personal relationships. I have a wonderful loving family but having friends in a peer group is something children/adults need and if it isn't there, it can cause damage. If you don't have friends in the hall, or outside of school, life can become very lonely. Unfortunately it happens all the time and I see many JW kids going down the same path. It's very sad.
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CuriousButterfly
I can relate a little when it comes to not having *worldy* friends around. We were allowed very limited time with a neighborhood kid, but we were always different. My parents did make sure we has JW friends over all the time and we always were around others. One regret was not being friends with others who were not JWs. Having non JW friends is SO vital to live in the real world. It took time but I am able to interact with co-workers, thank God for my job. I have grown as an adult and employee being around non-JWs.
Thank you for reflecting it is nice to know others went through similar situations.
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clarity
Undercover -
Wow, wow & wow! Can you even know the guilt and sorrow I feel as a mother who's kids sat through that! Ouch!
To my kids, Undercover & all who counted the seconds and who "were normal in an insane asylum" ....my deepest apologies!
"It seemed that being a jehovah witness was about how many things i did wrong. The only value i had was how well i could be a jehovah witness. I didnt matter as a person, all that mattered was how jehovah witness i could be. And it seemed like everyone else was better at it than me. In my mind no one else was bored at the meetings and everyone loved witnessing. I felt like i had been thrown into some alien planet and didnt understand their customs
It was trying to live up to a set of standards that deep down I knew I'd never be able to. And I can totally relate to your last two comments. I thought I was the weird one. I hated service, I was bored at meetings, I didn't feel love for God, I just wanted to go home and play or watch TV (what little I was allowed to watch anyway). It wasn't until finding others who had left that I realized that I wasn't the weird one...I was normal...it was everyone who actually liked the meetings and service that were on the weird side. But when you're normal in an insane asylum, you stand out as the different one." (Undercover)
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WTWizard
I thought it was bad enough to be in as an adult. Getting stuck at boasting sessions that disrupted my sleep, field circus, and all those stupid rules was bad enough for an adult. And, they made it so hard to get along in the world--Christmas was something to dread, not look forward to, and all the crap about "bad associations. Also, the mania against fornication was enough to drive anyone batty. In fact, the early 1990s were all mush, with nothing to differentiate one year from the others.
Just imagine a child growing up that way.
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Leolaia
There was one girl my age at the hall and we became best friends, until one day we had an argument and she suddenly was no longer my friend. Ugh. Yeah, childhood was a real drag being a kid stuck among the JWs. Hate the clothes, hate the boring meetings and conventions, hate not having birthdays and holidays, hate having to stand out at school by not saluting the flag or refraining from classroom parties, hate having suspicions cast on me in high school for having the friends I had, hate being forced to believe something I didn't believe in, hate being forced to spend Saturday mornings knocking on doors, hate being babysat by an abusive "sister", hate that this person taught my mom to not "spare the rod", and on and on.