What did you miss out on when you was a JW kid?

dustyb

as a person that grew up as a dub, i realize i missed a lot when i was a kid. i'm sitting here watching Mr. Rogers on PBS (for those who aren't American, its a kids show like Sesame Street, which i really wasn't allowed to watch either). it makes me sad because i've missed out on so much when i was a kid, such as watching Mr. Rogers. I know i did a lot more than a typical dub kid, but i didn't do all of it. I also missed out on the school haloween parties where you got free candy, and every valentines day when everyone would pass around valentines and me and a friend had to sit out =( i do remember tho this one girl always gave me a valentine because she liked me, hehehe. all the firecrackers, all the thanksgivings, and all the christmases that my dad allowed me to attend was great, and probably some of my most memorable times. but i sure do remember the elders putting pressure on me and my sisters to not attend these "wicked" celebrations. F$%k them now....

Mr. Rogers: Lets sing the alphabet song!

talesin

let's see ..... how can I count the ways?

birthdays, Xmas, friends, prom (or any old dance), sports, education (yanked out at 14, still a kid, right?), development of social skills, Valentines, hot dogs (blood), vaccinations, books, movies, television, dating

don't get me started

ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

deep breath 3....2....1

okey dokey, carry on folks

talesin

oops, I forgot

HALLOWE'EN -- all that candy

but, I'm all right now!

cypher50

Amazingly enough, I don't think I missed much about being a kid besides the birthdays & holidays. I could watch any show I wanted (we even sneaked in the Smurfs once in awhile), I got toys around Christmas because of my 'unbelieving' father and we had to go to school during the Holiday seasons so I know about most Holidays.

However, I think I really missed out on being a teenager. I really wanted to just be a normal teen (play a sport, have a girlfriend, hang out with my schoolmates) but I couldn't because this was all deemed 'worldly'. I literally was tearing up when senior prom came around because it was one of the few times where I had several really attractive girls ask me to the prom and I looked like a dumbass by saying no because of 'religious reasons'. This is one of the few things I actually get angry about when I think back...I wish that one time I would of just been my own person and done what I felt in my heart was right.

Black Sheep

The only thing I remember being jealous about was missing out on Scouts....

.....until my mid teens, when I realised I was missing out on sooo much and the reasons for missing out didn't seem that important to me any more.

So I took off and left my family and their religion behind me and found out that the world was not the wicked, evil place my parents had told me it was. They had lied to me. That's probably not true, they just didn't know any better. They still don't.

Black Sheep

development of social skills

Yes, me too, I just didn't realise it at the time.

Love_Truth

I left (stopped going to meetings, etc) when I was 13, less than a year after getting baptized, and got DF'd. However, even though I could date, party, etc, behind my Mom's back, I couldn't play on the High School Football and Wrestling teams without my Mom's consent, which she refused to give.

That's the thing I really missed out on, school sports. The irony of it is that if I had been allowed to play, I'm certain that I wouldn't have gotten as involved as I did with drug use and drug dealing.

talesin

L_T

so true - we were all 'preacher's kids' - rebellion often happened in EXACTLY the ways they feared, and their extreme 'protectionism' (for lack of a better term) failed miserably.

Many of the JW kids I grew up with turned to alcohol, other drugs and crime (at least the ones I knew who are DF or DA). Most are still having a hard time coping ... the 70's was indeed a difficult time to grow up JW.

Black Sheep

it was the most difficult to overcome - still playing catch-up myself

talesin

Love_Truth

talesin,

Agreed. You hit the nail on the head- if it weren't for the JWs forbidding wholesome activities like team sports, I would never have gotten involved with the "bad" kids, and eventually became one of the "worst" of them. It was only when I realized almost all my buddies were dying, going to prison, or other dead-end lifestyles, that I snapped out of it and got a job, put myself through College, and moved away from the area.

Ahh, the seventies!!

Trailblazer

Everything! The most exciting party I was able to go to we all got dressed up as bible characters! :-) Of course, I was a first child (always the experiment) of brand new, just in the "truth", JW parents. There are so many movies I haven't seen and so much music that I haven't heard that my new friends make fun of me. Not to mention I have no "street smarts" and have this amazingly gullable personality. Sports, dances, concerts...Missing the holidays doesn't bother me. I used to celebrate them until I was about 7 yrs old, I remember being really mad that my parents lied to me about Santa. I agree that many of us missed out on developing appropriate social skills.....

What did you miss out on when you was a JW kid?

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