Libelle, I've sent a pm , forgot to ask, what ages are the children?
Blithe
If you have kids who are being exposed to JW beliefs
by Libelle 31 Replies latest social family
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Nice_Dream
I think that's really cool that you're a pagan! Growing up a JW, I felt like I was left out of everything. Perhaps you could have a solstice party in the winter if your husband would allow that, or create another special "family day" so the stepchildren could participate as well. My husband doesn't mind if I "celebrate the seasons," so that's a way to have special times with your family without actually celebrating Christmas or Easter.
Just seeing you not go to meetings (and their Mom for the stepkids), might be enough to crack the children's foundation so the kids ask questions when they're older. I always wondered why my friends from school, and all my relatives were going to have to die because they weren't JWs but were still good people.
Sending you a PM.
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phoebed
I have a 6 years old boy and I just came out of Watchtower Society. I used to indoctrinate him myself all the time, but once i found out what is the truth about this organization, I did not know what to tell my son. So, I started watching with him movies about Jesus. He fell in love with Jesus! He started to speak about him all the time. Then I asked him: Honey do you think we should pray to Jesus from now on? He was extatic over this! He said: "Oh yes mom! He is ressurection and the life and whoever believes in him even if he dies he will live!"
I could not believe my ears! My son loves Jesus Christ, but he absolutely hated going to Kingdom Hall. JC is his best friend now and we have to go to church with him every Sunday where they preach Christ!.
Also something weird happened:My son love pictures and books, so one day the book "revelation -its climax at hand" got in his hands. He was looking through the pictures and found some strange things there... If any of you have older edition of this book- I have the edition of 1991, on page 52 he found a "ghost" hand. There is Jesus pictured with his 144000 I guess, and the one of the 144000 on the right side of Jesus has a "ghost" hand instead of a human hand. Also in page 159 is Jesus and look closely what is in his hand! There is a real face in the hand!
My little son could see things like that! IS not that just funny? Well there is no way we will be going to Kingdom Hall again...
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Ding
Great story, Phoebed!
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1Robinella
I agree with Ding..To me the best education for a child is exposing them to all different types of religion. For me, I have JW bibles (my grandmothers), Catholic bibles etc. You understand? I figure that religion is a personal choice and when I have a child I'd want my child to make own decision when they grow up. If they don't believe in a god, fine. If they are wanting to join the Jewish religion, fine. I cannot in my mind, make my child convert to whatever thinking I may have. To me, the responsibility of a parent is to show them many options. A well informed person can make wise decisions. I want my child to accept other people's beliefs and to never force religion on other people unlike the JW religion that was forced down my throat.
In this case I think your doing right. "How to keep them always thinking rather than never questioning?"
Good for you.
Stay very involved. When the time comes and they ask questions, listen, think before answering and then reply. Keep the communication open and light hearted. I'd talk to the Mr. or at least drop hints that: "Children need to grow up well rounded and informed to make sound decisions later in life...or...Lets find out what the children feel inside of them, what their heart says rather than forcing them to convert to JW thinking." Little comments may slowly melt into the Mr. head and he can start having a mind of his own?? I donno. Just a thought. As far as step children, that can be tricky. Are both biological parents JW? The whole step parent thing is tough. I know cause I have a 16 year old step child. AHHHH! If the children have neighbor friends or school friends that they play with after school, if they are invited for sleep overs, let them go. This to me, is the best way children can see how other people live. It exposes them to other cultures. For example my step child has a friend that is Jewish and before dinner they do their Jewish thing. (I can't remember what they do) lol. But anyway, it's a good thing. In my case, my mother never ever let me stay the night at a non-believers home and the odds of me becoming a JW was evident early on.
Hope this helps. lol
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Aussie Oz
I have kids being raised JW and frankly what is happening, or should i say, not happening scares me.
You see, the biggest thing i find is that the indocrination is so subtle and gradual that it can scarcely be seen.
NO questions are being asked. They know zero about the religions origens, its scandles, other religions and consequences.
The Corp called the Watchtower RELIES on them remaining dumbed down. They get so surrounded by the social side of it, even dabble in the world a bit but in the later teens will likely find a 'nice JW' boy or girl and settle into expected baptized ignorance to have legitimate sex.
MY JOB i see is to make them THINK. I can not TELL them, i have to be careful. I plant seeds of doubt, i carefully probe their minds without making it to heavy. I do have the kids permission to talk with them and i use it wisely. I have talked about baptism, marriages, disfellowshipping/shunning etc.
Now i plan to leave easy to follow information on my computer, deliberatly placed where they will find it...will they click on it? time will tell. It will be thinking iformation...not 'apostate' claims. It will be articles on examining your religion, a fammily tree of the Jehovahs witnesses, a comparrison table of similar religions and such
all the best with your challenge!
oz
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Gayle
try to keep their lives real..mentally stimulating,,fun,,active,,sports,, purpose of good health issues,, extracurriculars..goals of college,,but just relaxing discussions of life and again mentally stimulating too.
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Black Sheep
Go to the library and get this book.
Teach Your Child How to Think
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Libelle
Thank you guys. I will be back later to respond to all this. Life's a little heavy presently, and I'm just not in a mind to post much presently. But thank you for your ideas... keep them coming if you have them!
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Blithe Freshman
Hi,
Many of the materials listed, I was using before examining the ‘Truth”, I had rejected the “org”, the materials & things I did, made me think , but didn’t raise alarms with my husband for being in our home. Some were chosen because I was looking for alternatives to the Bible Stories Book to read to my children. I was disfellowshipped, but still under it’s influence for many of my beliefs. I had doubts, and these books were not so uber “Christian”, I felt OK with them.Hope these help. Being enlightened you can probably get further faster with them than I did . I have an adult son & his family still in the cult. I don’t wait for opportunities to make comments, that I hope will get him to think, I create them.
- A Case of Red Herrings, Mind Benders,with Sudoku & crossword, used these on car rides , waiting rooms, tried to make thinking fun.
- DK , The Children’s Illustrated Bible, from the cover…, principal events & characters of the Bible, but also explains the stories in their historical, geographical and cultural context. Background information, maps, pictures of artifacts…. School age children. . We were already used to DK history & science encyclopedic books around the house, this didn’t raise an eyebrow.
- Josephus for Young people, 5 th graders on up on their own or read to them earlier. I was able to use this in place of reading bible story book. More Bible stories without WT theology woven into them.
- Josephus & Wars of the Jews, I read this while kids were doing the younger version, if you also studied amillenial, preterist, interpretation of Revelation & dating of the book, you will be able to make comments have questions on Wt end times doctrine
- Books , ‘The Fallacy Detective” ( 4 th grade?) & ‘The Thinking Tool Box” , started these a few years after the Mind Benders & Red Herring Books
- John Stossel, offers free Dvd’s through the mail, download video online & discussion questions pdf , critical thinking for high school age kids
- I use crazy e-mails & collect them, teach my kids to snope
- We do a lot of reading together & discussion , teach them to express their thoughts, think about what they read . Always did this with books we would enjoy, but when we read, Watership Down, very cool responses from the kids, they were grades 4 & 6 at the time.
- The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, we would read through this each morning , hopping around topics. Things to think about, give opinions on, used in place of “The Daily Text”. It opened discussion about fairy tales & myths, Christmas stories. Later on I told the story of St. Nick giving dowries to young girls. The 3 rd year, I brought up the story of St. Nicholas of Myra & his conduct unbecoming a Bishop at the Council of Nicaea. They thought his bitch slapping Arius was funny, and then we learned together who Arius was & what he taught.
- Letters to the editor, every day an opportunity to point out poor argumentation. You don’t need to agree or disagree with the posts, just question out loud why do people write & argue like blah blah.
- I started a woman’s book group, as I read the books, I commented out loud & started conversations with my husband. You’ll get out once a month and an excuse for reading something controversial. I chose several of the books for the group, my husband didn’t know I picked them. Find a group, start your own, or fake one & spend the evening /afternoon doing something else you’d like.
Been very busy this week, I’ll work on a book list and comments I made that sparked some good discussions. I’ll post or pm them soon as I can.