DID OUR PARENTS REPLACE BIRTHDAY OR CHRISTMAS GIFTS WITH ANYTHING ELSE? (page 2)

Angharad

Yes, mine did. We always had a present day on my parents anniversary.

Yes. Looking back at that time, my parents were very generous with me as a child and always bought me whatever I wanted or asked for; and always giving me spending money. My father even bought me the car of my dreams when I turned 16.

In retrospect; they spoiled me. As a parent; I am not so generous with my kids.

Now that none of us are JWs, my parents response to this free spending was that they always felt guilty that I did not have the holidays they had growing up.

...makes sense to me. I hold no grudges against them.

diamondblue1974

Im glad some of the parents did or do, anniversary's could have been an option but i was in a single parent family so anniversary not the best day to be remembering really...she tried a couple of present days but never kept it up....childhoods are robbed from JW kids...

lovinglife

Yes...we had what we called a "Surprise Day" about once a year with presents and her baking our favorite treats and a special dinner. We wouldn't know about it until coming home from school.

pratt1

Yes. We had two gift days one near my birthday and one near Christmas.

Since I was an only child and my Dad was an unbeliever, I think both my parents tried to compensate for the alienation I received from relatives who were worldly.

Freedom Fighter

Looking back I was pretty fortunate, I usually got something throughout the year. This was re-inforced by the statement -"at least you don't have to wait untill Xmas or birthdays to get anything".

It didn't make up for missing out on the actual days tho - I always had a pang of jealousy whenever the other kids at school had their birthday treats. Even getting a new denim cat suit (it was the 70's c'mon) didn't make up for that.

FF

toladest

No. We never got anyhing. We were trained to tell people that we did not miss holidays becuase we could get presents all year round just because our parents loved us. What BullS***. My parents had 10 kids and I think my "unbelieving" father was just relieved that he did not have to come up with the money for X-Mas and B-days. After all, he needed his beer and cigerettes....

pennycandy

We did get toys and things throughout the year, and on our parents' anniversary, but never wrapped.

But what was missing was the excitement of anticipation, knowing something really fun was coming, just for me. Then seeing the box, wrapped in bright-colored paper and tied with curly ribbons. Somebody went to the trouble to wrap that and make it pretty just for me. Then tearing it open, what is it? what is it?

You just can't get that kind of fun from tossing an extra toy into the Walmart basket.

To this day I look at a nicely wrapped present with awe.

Mary

Yep, my parents replaced birthdays and Christmas with Field Service........this is so we could "build up treasures in heaven" instead of being a bunch of materialistic drones........

Midget-Sasquatch

Never got any replacement xmas gift.

But my mom did secretly go around the birthday bans for about 6 years in a row. The month always varied and the gifts were usually not that expensive, so pop never suspected. But no matter how small, they were ultra cool cuz it was forbidden.

It stopped once we were in middleschool though.

DID OUR PARENTS REPLACE BIRTHDAY OR CHRISTMAS GIFTS WITH ANYTHING ELSE?