Raised a JW... did you have a childhood?

by ignorance is strength 40 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  smack

  Flame suit on....

  Try having your guts pulled out on an operating table 3 times.......... before you are 6.

  Try never ever eating.........all food direct to your bowel.

  Try watching your mom die.

  Try supporting yourself, from age 12.

  Try raising your siblings....while your parent are unconcious.

  Try being austistic..... and being alone.

  Try being black.

  Try being white.

  Try being gay.

  Try not being any of the above.

  Some of us didn't play sport, some of us were picked on, some of us had to preach in public.

  If you only focus on the negatives, you'll never ever see the beauty that is out there.

  Remember the good things, like sugar on lettuce, a brand new bike, a hug, your first surf, a puppy.....

  Steve
• 

  Lady Lee

  smack you deserve a smack for that

  Some of can't remember anything good because we were just trying to survive

  I grew up in a home where we were screamed at daily, beaten daily, sexually abused, neglected, ignored, locked in rooms or closets and that is the mild stuff. Going to bed was a prayer to die and not wake up to another day of hell. Waking up was with the surety of another nightmare to live through.

  We got kittens once - that felt good until my father forced us to watch while he drowned them and then told us if we weren't good he would do the same to us.

  I got a new dress once - and had to pay for it with sexual favors - at 10 years old

  Some of lived a nightmare Finding good things comes now as we create them in the present.
• 

  proudassmonkey

  a childhood what's that? i find now that my boyfriend brings things up music...movies.... TV shows whatever, my usual reply was i wasn't allowed to listen or watch that. i missed out on so many things. my proms, high school dances, high school sports, everything that people think of as normal growing up things. every time i inoccently hugged a boy at school some other jw kid would tell my parents. and now my mom wonders if she was strict enough w/ us. i ask you how can you get stricter?
• 

  nilfun

  smack you deserve a smack for that

  yikes, that's kinda harsh...

  I hear you smack.

  Compared to the lives of children around the world, mine was a childhood that was worse than some and better than most.

  Here's to the overcomers! *raises a glass*
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  Mulan

  I had a pretty good childhood, considering being raised a JW from the age of 4. I had grandparents and cousins and an aunt who were all JW's, and we were a tight knit family. We went on 2 cross-country trips to New York for International conventions in 1953 and 1958, all of us, and had a blast. We took six weeks to take the trip and it was educational and very fun, camping and staying in motels occasionally. We loved it.

  My parents were very liberal too, and growing up in the 50's and 60's, I had it good. In school, I was in clubs, ran for class office, (didn't win, but my girlfriends did), dated, went to dances, and had a pretty normal life. I think times were different though.

  I didn't miss holidays..................I really didn't. I didn't know the difference.
• 

  Surreptitious

  This could have been you.

  
• 

  yesidid

  Lady Lee

  Were your parents witnesses?

  yesidid
• 

  Prisca

  If you only focus on the negatives, you'll never ever see the beauty that is out there.

  Smack does have a very good point.

  For the majority of us, we did have a fairly good childhood, even if we were raised JWs. Sure, I had a crappy childhood, even if I wasn't a JW I still would have had a crappy childhood, as would some others amongst us.

  But if we are going to focus on the negative all the time, as many of these types of threads do, then we will tend to look at life in a negative way. We will not be able to see the positives that we did have - and if we are completely honest with ourselves, there are alot more positives than negatives.
• 

  Holey_Cheeses*King_of_the juice.

  I wish my wife could reply to this topic, as I was not raised a jw (thank goodness) and did not come under their influence until my very late teens, but, my wife was raised in the so-called truth, and apart from the ritual of meetings, FS, assemblies, and more meetings, and more FS, and more assemblies, the high point of her childhood was being able to balance while walking along the top of a fence. Sad indeed.

  Agreed, in comparison to the lives (sadly, albeit too short in far too many cases) of many children, hers was a successful one (i.e. she did get to reach adulthood) but, when compared to other children of her age and in the concept of Australian society in general, her childhood was marked by the omission of many activities that identify a 'normal' childhood. Add to that the emotional torment of school and the viewing (tempted to say witnessing) of other 'worldly' children engaging in evidently harmless activities, and it all adds up to a childhood that has no fond memories, and that does not bear discussing.

  cheeses - a hater of the thieves of another persons life. (grammer check needed, but it sounds okay).
• 

  yxl1

  My childhood was crappy before we bacame dub and got worse when we joined (I was about 6) However, we did move house to get away from all the bad association (i.e. My school mates) and was moved to a school that had a high dub population. That was hell on earth, but looking back, it was probably a good thing as most of my pre-dub mates are now either in prision, unemployable or just plain loosers.