The Little Aggravations: Things I Don't Miss

by simon17 45 Replies latest jw friends

  • nugget
    nugget

    I hated getting to field service only to find out that everyone had paired up prior to the group and I was left as a spare part.

    I hated it when on a Saturday my husband and the olther elders went off on calls as a car group leaving me to work with both the children. Actually I liked being able to do a few calls and bunk off early but I hated the assumption that children were womens work.

    I hated it when you had both the children with you on the service but noone volunteered to take one of them with them so you had to either go to the door mob handed or split up prior to every door.

    I hated it when someone made their getting to the meetings your responsibility and laid on the guilt. Then when you had gone miles out of your way to pick them up and arrived home late they would offer you "a few pennies" to cover your time and expense. Trust me no bus or taxi would take you to the meeting and back for £2 or a cup of coffee next time you were out on the service.

    I hated it when you got to the meeting and listened to a talk about widening out and being friendly and yet no one would come up to talk to you even when you had a baby in your arms that had fallen asleep and you couldn't move yourself.

    I hated that everyone felt they had the right to tell you how to bring up your children even though they did not have the first idea what your children needed or appreciate that for them they had been pretty damn wonderful during the last 2 hours of mental torture.

    I hated it when someone answered up and rambled for ages completely off the point I was mentally screaming inside.

    I hated it when people took the end seats at assemblies and then frowned when you had to take children past them because they needed the toilet. You then had to wait until the next break or song to return to the seat so as not to get frowny faced or deep sighs.

    I hated it that despite having 2 young children it was deemed a good idea to put hubby on the locking up schedule and then having to wait while people with zero empathy talked for hours about pointless stuff whilst your children were tired and fractious and had school in the morning waited for them to shut up and go home. If I seemed less than happy I was the bad person.

    I hated it when you went out to a restaurtant as a group and half the people there didbn't want to pay a tip even though the service had been perfect. They also neglected to add the cost of their drinks to their share so some poor person at the end is saddled with the shortfall. Hubby once had to pay an extra £50 at someones engagement meal because of a load of JW short payers who had left pretty damn quick after supposedly paying their share.

    I hated it when people were judgemental about other people's homes or what they had rather than being happy for someone.

    The miracle is I didn't run out of the place screaming like a smurf sooner.

  • apostatethunder
    apostatethunder

    Field service

    Hypocrisy

    Stupid comments, (also stupid conversations that lead nowhere)

    Talks about headship/sister’s status

    Depressed sisters

    Jealousy

    Being lectured by somebody that doesn’t have a clue

    Local needs: do more return visits

    Blackmail in any of its forms

    Stalkers

    Being looked at as a Pharisee for voicing a different point of view

    Etc.

  • not bitter
    not bitter

    Ah yes, saying a prayer in a restaurant.

    And going to the theatre and the whole bunch of dubs would sit whilst everyone else stood up and sang the national anthem. I would always stand even as a child out of respect and not to look so obvious. I just thought it was rude to sit though it. Plus I enjoyed embarrassing the rest of the group being the only one to stand.

  • JWdaughter
    JWdaughter

    Pantyhose.

  • JWdaughter
    JWdaughter

    I hated the prayers! HOW were they any less rote than the ones at the Catholic Church or that Muslims pray? If its repetitive, fine, but don't fool yourselves into thinking you are making some artful creative prayer every time simply because it isn't written already in a book. Heck, how many JWs grew up knowing the "Lords Prayer"? I didn't. A total cultural norm to know that and the beatitutudes and Psalms 119(all of it) or Psalms 23-but does any JW know those? NO. Pisses me off how scripturally and culturally ignorant I was!

  • Quendi
    Quendi

    What I hated was being used as an unpaid babysitter and chaperone during the summer vacation months. You know what I mean. Every parent with school-age children would make them auxiliary pioneer during the long summer break and would drop them off each morning at the hall for field service. Mind you, they wouldn't accompany their kids themselves, but depended on the adult Witnesses in the field service group to do this. Complaining about the situation did no good as some of the elders and their wives were the worst offenders. Of course, the guilt trip would be laid upon complainers too as parents would say their children's "spirituality" wasn't being helped by those who didn't want to be saddled with them. Insted, we should feel "privileged to be used by Jehovah in this way"!

    Quendi

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