Getting upset with children who cannot sit through the meetings.

by life is to short 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  life is to short

  OK this thought came to me the other day. I was thinking of the CO who told me that he liked to see parents spank their children for not sitting still during the meetings.

  I remember how hard it was to sit through two hours when I was four or five years old. It was like forever.

  I was thinking of comparing the hours that we have been alive to how long two hours is for a child

  OK a five year old he has been alive 43,800 hours and a 35 year old person has been alive 306,600 hours and someone who is 60 years old has been alive 525,600 hours.

  OK so for a five year old to sit and listen for two hours to an adult conversation would be like having a 35 year old sit for 7 days without getting fidgety listening to something he does not understand or even want to be there but is told me must or else God will kill him. Or as in the case of my CO who is 50 he would have to sit for 10 days without getting fidgety or he would get spanked and humiliated, shamed in front of the congregation for not sitting still. Would he then think that was fair and right then?

  Also the stupid reasoning that kids can watch TV for hours on end. When I was a kid it was Gilligans's Island, the Brady Bunch, Fred Flintstone. They were half an hour shows with commercial breaks in the middle of the half hour. The reasoning the WT used is so stupid now that I look back.

  Am I seeing this wrong? And what was wrong with all the adults that soaked it in and beat their kids?

  LITS
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  St George of England

  And what was wrong with all the adults that soaked it in and beat their kids?

  Nothing has changed. Kids still get hammered today!

  George
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  Justitia Themis

  I don't think the proportional time analogy holds water, but I agree that JWs take things to the extreme, more so concerning conventions than meetings.

  I don't have an issue with making kids sit quietly. Both my daughter's think it gave them an edge in school, because they could sit and concentrate longer than others.

  I think this is a skill that is not being taught to the present generation, which may impact their learning abilities. My husband and I were at a restaurant this last weekend, and a five-year old couldn't even sit through the whole meal; her parents let her get up and wander around the restaurant...in the way of the wait-staff. If this girl can't even sit for a meal, how is she going to sit AND concentrate at school?
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  NewChapter

  I attended an assembly where a young mother had a very young baby. The CO was giving a talk, and the baby started crying. They were sitting near the front. When the crying didn't stop immediately (sometimes babies just don't hush on command) the CO STOPPED his talk and said he would continue once the crying was resolved. This poor woman stood with her crying baby and walked nearly the full length of the hall, with over 1000 people watching her, as she made her way out the back doors. The baby screamed the whole way, but the hall was dead silent otherwise. I was horrified! HORRIFIED, that he had done that to that young woman. I can only hope she packed up and never came back.
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  ambersun

  I never got upset with my children but I DID get upset with the idiots who tried to order us to make them sit silently through long meetings they were too young to understand. One congregation we attended when our son was tiny wouldn't even tolerate the sound of a gurgling baby and insisted I stayed in the cold bookroom with no sound through out the meetings!

  Just before our fade I can remember being at Dudley assembly hall and towards the end of a very long day our four year old son was sitting on the floor between us playing quietly with a toy, not disturbing anyone. A very pompous elder was sitting the other side of Hubby and was clearly very annoyed. He complained that our son was a distraction and practically ordered Hubby to put him back on the seat and take away his toy. Hubby just turned to the pompous elder and asked him if he had ANY idea how difficult it was to keep an active four year old boy quiet for an entire day? We are not talking about a couple of hours here! He added that our son was tired and we had no intention of distressing him by taking away his toy and making him sit on a seat that he had already sat on for far longer than was reasonable for such a small child!! We were both very annoyed and needless to say, we started a gradual fade quite soon after that episode. To cause distress to a tired child is heartless and cruel!!
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  Hairyhegoat

  Thought this info may interesting..

  Former cult member opens up about past, helps others Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 11/28/2008 4:35:00 AM

  A former Jehovah Witness has written a book called The Spanking Room: A Child's Eye View of the Jehovah Witnesses.

  When Bill Coburn was four years old, his mother became part of the Watchtower Society. He remembers attending a meeting discussing plans for a new Kingdom Hall. "The elder then announced that what we may not have noticed was that there was a spanking room installed next to the women's bathroom," he explains. "This was to solve the problem of women waiting in line at the bathroom with crying children, waiting for them to be beaten during the meeting."
  
  Coburn was asked why he calls it a beating instead of a spanking. "I would describe it as a beating because it was described how to inflict more pain upon the child," he adds.
  
  He notes that a youngster would be beaten for the slightest infraction. "Not just fidgeting or making noise during the meeting, but not paying attention, not looking up at the speaker and pretending to hear every word they said for two hours straight was the reason to be dragged out and disciplined," he adds.
  
  Coburn left Jehovah Witnesses at age 17 and converted to Christianity. He claims his purpose in writing the book was to help others who grew up in the same Kingdom Hall atmosphere.

  This is so true we had 1 kid who was battered black and blue by his dad at every meeting, on one occasion the screams were that bad even with the door shut to the main hall that the speaker asked for the volume on the mics to be turned up to drown out the cries from the second school.!

  These people are child abusers sick in the head

  HHG
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  truman

  @ NewChapter:

  I had exactly the same thing happen to me, only it was a regular Sunday talk, not an assembly. The haughty SOB on the platform stopped his talk and said, "Would you please take that child out of here."

  It was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. We left the KH that day immediately, but unfortunately, did not stay away.

  Such behavior from those 'men' in charge is so hypocritical. They refuse to provide reasonable services or facilities for young children, insisting that babies and toddlers be in attendance--then they berate them for being human and crying like babies are going to do. Shameful.
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  villabolo

  Thank you Hairyhegoat for that information.

  Villabolo
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  TotallyADD

  I agree to a point with Jusitita Themis on children learning to sit still. It's very good training for young ones the only problem I have is JW children have to sit still listening to talks that are not age appropriate. For NewChapter I remember the same thing happen back in the 60's at a CA. The CO stop his talk and asked the young mother to take her crying baby out of the auditorium. I was only 11 at the time and I was embarrass for her. Reason 1078 why I hate this cult. Totally ADD
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  miseryloveselders

  I think at times JWs expect too much of children, when JWs themselves often can't do what they expect their children to do. My father still tells me occasionally that some parents raise their kids to hate The Truth. What he means is that some parents go too far with it, dragging their kids in field service doing pioneer hours, or scolding a 5 year old for dosing off during the Service Meeting. Its ridiculous to expect children to love meetings when the parents don't even love the meetings. When I did the sound, it was nice to be able to sit in the back and be able to observe everyone. I did the sound for so long, that I became familiar with almost everyone's peculiarities. At a certain time I expected certain brothers to start nodding off, or a certain sister all of a sudden have to go to the bathroom, and another sister always going to the bathroom immediately thereafter. Meanwhile, those same adults would have a problem with some barely kneehigh child dosing off at the meeting, or some other baby crying. I've seen hypocritical parents make their children and sometimes teenagers stand in the back as punishment, while the adult doses off and on during the meeting. Hypocrites. Kids have long days at school, just like adults have long days at work. It aint easy sitting through a brother doing his best Ben Stein imitation during the Bible Highlights, after you've had a rough day work......or school.

  Granted at the same time, some parents lacked enough common sense to take their crying babies in the back. If you're that aloof that you'll sit their with your baby outscreaming the teenager's mustang 5.0 bass booming outside the hall for more than a couple minutes, I have to question whether you should have even had children in the first place. If the kid didn't pipe down after a minute or two of "there there", than take the kid in the lobby. Don't sit there for five minutes in the middle row, five rows from the speaker while the child is doing karoake of Pavarotti. Go in the lobby and let the kid entertain the bored attendant, who often enough is me.