Were you beaten as a child? (page 5)

newgirl

I'm stunned, I'm so sorry that happened to soo many. I was raised Catholic and Lutheran. ...I'm not Baptized JW...but I do attend the half hour meetings, not the watch tower portion. I feel it's too long for my 11 year old, no point if she's bored and gets nothing from it. We do have in home teaching twice a month. I had no idea how strict jw parents were and if I was in a meeting and saw any abuse I have to say....liked or not. I'd step in and stop it! Again. .I'm so sorry for all who suffered.

Magwitch

Didn't Mr. Jackson tell the world last August that his special religion did not believe in "Corporal Punishment" for children?

jookbeard

yes, a stick,belt/hand kick whatever

cofty

HI newgirl, welcome to the forum.

Please keep reading and asking questions.

Whatever you do please, please keep your 11 year old daughter safe from this religion.

sparky1

Welcome newgirl. You can learn a lot from this forum.))))

Dunedain

The problem, and why this was and, in many cases still is, so prevalent in the JW cult, is because the "religion" is mostly about show.

Its about showing you are "spiritual" by pioneering, being an Elder, a MS, going out in service like a robot, answering at meetings,attending every meeting, and so on, and so forth.

Part of the "show", is making everyone think you are a great parent, and that your children are obedient, little, spiritual clones of Mommy and Daddy. If you have a misbehaving, disobedient child, you could be thought of as being "unspiritual".

This is the worst possible outcome that could happen to someone in this cult, or at least that's what all these brainwashed assholes think. So it literally drives, spiritually striving parents to BEAT THEIR CHILDREN. It is sometimes in the most brutal, and abusive ways imaginable, and it is MOSTLY DONE IN THE "HOUSE OF GOD".

They should change the name of the Kingdom hall to the BEATING HALL. When you have the "pet" scriptures that JW's are so fond of using, and one is about "using the rod", being read from the podium, IT LITERALLY CREATES CHILD ABUSE.

Most of us have seen it. The "walks to the back", grabbing and pulling a 4 yr old childs arms, as they are screaming and crying, and being dragged to their doom in front of EVERYONE, and this is the NORM.

JW parents feel they have a "get out of jail free card", to beat the crap out of the children, and almost be silently praised and rewarded for it. It is almost like, the MORE you beat your child, the more you must be a spiritual parent, ITS SICK.

Yes, I WAS beaten. I was knocked unconscious by my father once, at 8 years old. I was beaten for soiling myself, BEFORE I was toilet trained. That's right, I REMEMBER the beatings from the age of 2 years old, because I couldn't use the toilet yet. I didn't understand why I was even being hit. Fortunately, I was a shy, little, quiet boy at the meetings, so I sat still, and didn't get THAT many beatings at the hall. Most happened at home.

It did eventually culminate AT the Kingdom Hall during my "rebellious" years, when at 15 years old me and my Elder Father got into a FIST FIGHT outside the Hall. It ended with him throwing me into the Kingdom hall front doors, that EVERYONE in the meeting heard it, and me running away, and spending the night like a homeless person in the street. My "crime", he found out I kissed a girl, and the elders told him before the meeting.

I have 2 daughters of my own now. They are the most beautiful, kind hearted, loving, thoughtful, children one could EVER ask for, and guess what I NEVER HIT either of them ONCE, and they both NEVER stepped a foot in the Kingdom Hall EVER.

I BROKE the cycle of abuse, and my life is wonderful for it.

purrpurr

My mother would be more likely to beat me in the meeting if she saw other parents hauling their children out to the back. I would be minding my own business reading the meeting material etc then suddenly I'd be grabbed and yanked out of my seat. Mother would march me through the hall looking at the Cong with a triumphant smug grin on her face as if to say "look everybody I'm going to hit my child too! Aren't I great? Please accept me!"

Then of course I'd be in the foyer and she'd hit me in front of everyone there as hard as she could for as long as she could. Normally untill she had got me to cry, if I didn't cry then she couldn't prove that she had hit me enough.

Stupid thing was I really was a little goody two shoes, never naughty, never played up. Quite frankly I was always too scared to step a foot out of line. Even so no one ever stopped her or said anything to her about it.

Nathan Natas

Get her one of these wall decorations:

but don;t smack her with it.

Jaidubdub

The wooden spoon was common when I was young though my mum never did that to us - we got a smack on the butt & not very hard either. But my dad was another story. One day he hit my sister so badly round the head she ended up in hospital... The doctors were concerned she may have brain damage but lucky she didn't. I can never forget seeing my sisters bloodied face, shirt front & walls.... Not something a 7 year old should experience.

Gulf Coaster

To be fair, physical assault of children by parents goes on even outside the cult but it's usually not something those parents are encouraged to do, nor do they feel so righteous & open about it. JW parents have no qualms about publicly humiliating their children at the KH, believing it makes them look good in front of their peers. It's particularly sick and evil.

Myself, yes, lots of times yet I was a submissive mouse of a child who walked on eggshells trying not to pi** my uber-dub mother off. I never did anything bad really, just minor mistakes that a child would be expected to make, i.e., drop and break something, accidentally knock my little brother over while playing, etc. Hands, fists, kicks, belts, shoes, wooden spoons, tree switches, fly swatters, yardsticks, books, rolled up newspapers, whatever she could get her hands on. She'd fly into a rage at anything. I'd try to get away, of course, cramming myself into closets, under furniture and wherever I could escape which enraged her even more. I rarely didn't have bruises, scratches and cuts. Sometimes I peed myself out of terror.

She also perfected the emotionally abusive "silent treatment" that could go on for 4 or 5 days. She'd either ignore me as if I were invisible or look at me with complete contempt like I was filth. She'd refuse to do any of the things she normally did for us kids - plate my food, include my clothes in with the family laundry, etc. These silent treatments were either separate or added onto the physical assaults.

But my worst memory was of my mother assaulting my little brother who was probably about 4 at the time. I was 13. His sin: not wanting to eat his lunch. I remember feeling so helpless and anguished that I couldn't dare stop her even though I desperately wanted to, and to beat the crap out of her. I just had to bear listening to his screams and the blows she rained down upon him and watch as he cowered and crawled out of the way. He peed and shat himself during that particular assault. So much for the "best life ever!".

I've never forgiven her because it was physical, mental and emotional abuse and when I brought it up once, she smugly and obnoxiously said it's how kids needed to be raised and we deserved every "spanking" as she called it. I left that psycho woman's house and her psycho cult when I was 20.

As for my own kids, there were only 2 or 3 occasions when I smacked them once, with my hand on their bottoms when preferred methods of discipline wasn't get through to them, and what they were doing was very hurtful to others, or dangerous. I hated doing it.

Were you beaten as a child?

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