Perhaps a balanced perspective from someone who is in it.
It is true that since I am a male, I have an advantage. The headship advantage. That does not mean that my wife will always comply with my requests, particular if they 'threaten her spirituality.' That said, my wife is 'weak' in the 'truth' in that she still secretly longs to celebrate holidays, birthdays, and the like with me and our family. That also gives me an advantage since I have a chink in her armor. I say nothing about what she is doing being wrong and she does it, I just let her work it out with her god (the Watchtower Society).
How successful your relationship will work out will be determined by how well you communicate and what boundaries you two are willing to establish and compromise on. Personally, if my wife had said 'no sex for a year until we are married,' I would've went along with it. I mean, realistically, it is not going to work as the passion of the moment will come within that time frame and oopsies.... Well, we'll just try again and see how long we can go without sex.
I mean, realistically speaking.
You must make it very clear what you want and what you don't want and do not allow yourself to be a pushover. It's easy to do, you love the man and you want it to work, we understand. I've been there and I am also 8 years into our marraige and just finding out how I should've been more assertive throughout my life. Oh well, live and learn.
Make sure your mate realizes that he is not going to boss you around. Also, make sure you are very clear on where you stand on how you want to raise your children. Keeping the children out of the meetings is going to be impossible, not to mention unfair. Never-the-less, don't allow him to insist that he only takes the kids to the meetings if there is somewhere you want the kids to go too. Again, compromise, compromise, compromise and make sure he is meeting you halfway. Bear in mind that this is not something witnesses have a tendency to do as they tend to see things their way or the highway, but push back and take charge if you have to.
I'd try all this out now while you are not yet married to him. Try it out for the next year. Then see how he reacts. This will be a good indication on what the marraige is going to be like. If it looks like you two will always end up disagreeing on everything and not compromising on anything during this time know that it won't get better after you both say 'I do.'
