My folks started studying when I was around 3 and I remember how much my life changed, no more birthday parties or presents, christmas was but a memory and I had to dress up and attend meetings..... then came field service .
I think that having had a taste of "normalcy" as a young child made it harder for me later, I didn't understand "why", it lead me to resent the society as I got older. Worse still was the fact that I was raised an only child and our hall didn't have many kids to begin with in my age group, The only kids I could talk to or hang out with were the ones from school and they were "worldy," so that was out. I longed to have friends so badly! I remember this episode vividly: I was in 3rd grade and this girl in my class was having a slumber party for her birthday and she was passing out these beautiful invitations to all the girls in our class and she passed by me and said.."I would invite you, but your a JW and they don't celebrate birthdays". I felt so left out and like total shit , I was devastated, all I wanted were friends and to do fun stuff with, I was just a kid. I never have forgotten how I felt at that very moment in time. I think it tainted my future as a dub.
DL76