by The Rebel 13 Replies latest jw friends
On another thread I commented " The most wonderful thing for me about having left the organisation is giving an education to my child, encouraging him to be dedicated and committed to the person he himself wants to be"
For me that is the best thing about being free from the organisations control.
What has been your best realisation having left the organisation?
The Rebel.
I have never been a JW, but have been "in" for 20 years by virtue of my marriage to a JW. For 17 years I believed that the JW leadership was a group of sincere, religious people. After three years of research and thanks to blogs like these, I have learned the dishonest, cruel, possibly criminal kind of organization the WT is. As a result of my investigations I pulled my 12 year old out of it 3 years ago. No more preaching or theocratic school. Fast forward to today, he can claim a long list of worldly friends from Japan, South Korea, his school swim team, his school Track and Field, his school theater classes. He is having one hell of a time being a worldly kid. So far, he's traveled to Europe and South America (we are from the U.S.). He is going to Japan next year and South Korea the year after. And yes, he is a straight A student aiming for the best possible university and lots of worldly goals.
Big middle finger to you Watchtower! Can't have this kid
Yes tiki @ neverajw I agree.
I received a birthday card from my boy "To my dad. To the person that always stands up for me........." That in its self was worth all the crap involved with leaving the organisation.
The Rebel.
Even before fully awakening to TTATT, we saw that "Jehovah was delaying" and we did not want our children to miss out on an education (as we both did due to the "fact" that The End(TM) was soooo near), so we were determined that they would go to college. They are adults with good careers. Now that all of our children are also awake, it means our grandchildren will not be giving their heart and soul (and ice cream money) to the Corporation of False Promises, but instead will be able to set and reach meaningful goals in their lives.
Doc
Hi Rebel, you are so right. The children should not have their minds shoved into a little cult shaped box when they are trying to grow up into adulthood, with no choice in the matter.
My granddaughter has just started 10th grade and she is so happy to be away from her father's household where they were going to only let her finish 8th grade and then change to home "school." When she was in school there they would not allow her sufficient time to do her homework, they always calling her out of her room to be in the bible study or WT study or go to meetings. She had to clean the kitchen no matter how much homework she had, and frequently stayed up after meetings til 3 in the morning doing homework. Because she hated getting low grades.
If she missed the bus her stepmother would not drive her to school, she just missed the school day. If the orchestra had extra practice they would not drive her, she had to miss it. If she got invited to anything by a school friend she had to turn it down.
Now with her mom she is in a youth orchestra AND the school orchestra. She's taking two computer classes and whatever else she wants to do. But she had to face down her father, stepmother, five step- and half siblings and a herd of elders at age 14, before she escaped. She spent five days being shunned in the house and the kids hating her, until finally her father called my daughter and said Come get her. And then he acceded to change of custody in court.
And guess what else? He has not contacted the child in any way for over a year. A shining wonderful kid who works so hard to achieve her best in school and music. Seems if she can't be under his controlling ignorant thumb she has no value and must be shunned as if she doesn't exist.
I'm grateful to be reminded this morning of how lucky we are to have learned ttatt, and that we were able to help our grandchild to get out of cult jail.
Marina
When we were still JW's we too saw the necessity of sending our kids to enjoy further education. They are now in well-paid jobs, are capable of thinking for themselves in all situations, and are well equipped for life.
Now we are free, we are so glad we did that for them, though it cost us money we really did not have.
Being free for us is wonderful too because we can now have a full relationship, a normal one, with our kids and grandkids. We could not have done so had we remained JW's, our kids were already out before they ever went to Uni.
Imagine missing your grandkid's Birthday Parties and Christmas! Horrible, but that is what would have happened. Those joyous times can now be enjoyed together as an extended non-JW family.
I'm glad to be free of that dreadful, stressful, mind-numbing, life-robbing routine that ruined 30 years of my life. I was all in so I never had any free time. I had no weekends; Saturdays and Sundays were taken up. I had no afternoons, no evenings. I was always behind on something and feeling guilty. I was kept ignorant as I had no time to read anything but material from the org.
Neither my wife nor I can imagine going back to that routine now that we're free of it.
THE REBEL- Great thread, great question ! I agree- I'm happy that my oldest son 30 years of age is finishing getting his bachelor's degree this next spring. I'm so proud of him and for him. ( He's the only 1 out of 3 of my children to escape the JW cult so far ) .
As regards myself the thing I cherish the most is my freedom of mind- the right and the opportunity to think, feel, and pursue interests like music, hiking in the woods, and other pursuits without clogging up all my valuable time in a selfish mind control cult created by the WT Society that uses people up. I have no fear of " Armageddon " because it's an unreality- ain't gonna happen. Those are a couple things I'm grateful for off the top of my head
