I remember always feeling left out after Christmas Holiday. My classmates would come back to school with new clothes and new toys for show and tell. I would always be envious but of course would immediately defend my beliefs. I remember saying ridiculous things like, 'my parents don't just wait for one day a year to give me presents -- everyday is like christmas.' I think my mom came up with that one. My nearly three year old son is having the childhood I wish I had -- I'm living vicariously through him and it's the best. I feel sad for my parents -- that they gave up all of these special times with their kids.
limbogirl
JoinedPosts by limbogirl
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JW Children, Holidays, and Memories
by somebodylovesme inmy husband and i were walking through the store today and we passed a display of valentines -- you know, the kind that school kids buy and exchange in the classroom.
i paused and glanced them over, remembering how much i used to love holidays at school.
(husband is an inactive/faded jw; i was never one.
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JWs and the holidays at work
by limbogirl ini had lunch this week with some business colleagues and one of them complained that at her office there is now a "no merry christmas" policy which includes not saying merry christmas, not decorating the office for christmas, no christmas party, no secret santa games or exchanging of gifts.
i asked why all the rules and she said that there is one woman (out of nearly 150 employees) who is a jw and office management has decided the best way to handle the situation without excluding this woman or offending her in any way is to eliminate all reference to the holidays.
as you can imagine the other employees are in an uproar.
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limbogirl
maybe your partners should be notified that not only is the christmas party offensive but so is the mere association with all of the non-JW co-workers. but then you probably wouldn't even get a holiday party! the other strange thing in regard to my first post...apparently the christmas party was to be renamed the holiday party but that didn't suffice either. so now the holiday party is the 2006 kickoff party and will occur after the first of the year so as not to be confused with a new year's party. :)
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JWs and the holidays at work
by limbogirl ini had lunch this week with some business colleagues and one of them complained that at her office there is now a "no merry christmas" policy which includes not saying merry christmas, not decorating the office for christmas, no christmas party, no secret santa games or exchanging of gifts.
i asked why all the rules and she said that there is one woman (out of nearly 150 employees) who is a jw and office management has decided the best way to handle the situation without excluding this woman or offending her in any way is to eliminate all reference to the holidays.
as you can imagine the other employees are in an uproar.
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limbogirl
I had lunch this week with some business colleagues and one of them complained that at her office there is now a "No Merry Christmas" policy which includes not saying merry christmas, not decorating the office for christmas, no christmas party, no secret santa games or exchanging of gifts. I asked why all the rules and she said that there is one woman (out of nearly 150 employees) who is a JW and office management has decided the best way to handle the situation without excluding this woman or offending her in any way is to eliminate all reference to the holidays. As you can imagine the other employees are in an uproar. Will be interesting to see what comes of this. When I was a JW at school or at the office there were certainly never any accommodations made because of my religion (nor did I expect any) -- seems like our overly PC world is perhaps working to the advantage of some of the JWs? But I suppose it will be harder for them to witness in the workplace when everyone else is also acting like a JW. very strange...
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perspective on growing up in a jw family after i had my son
by limbogirl incurious to see if anyone else can relate to this....i've been away from jw-world for many years yet really began to have a lot of issues resurface for me when i became a parent two and a half years ago.
.........specifically, i began thinking a lot about my parents raising me and i'm just blown away at the way in which they chose to fill my head with jw teachings from such an early age.
i can't imagine ever teaching my little boy about wicked people, demons, satan, destruction at armageddon and so forth at such a young age.
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limbogirl
the JWs I grew up with loved telling stories about people that were demonized and then came into the "truth." these stories always scared the heck out of me and I think back to some of these tales and wonder how in the world any adult would think those were appropriate things to share with a little kid. one story was about how some newly interested person decided to burn all of their "demonic" books but the books wouldn't burn because they were possessed by demons and it wasn't until the elders prayed and said jehovah that the books burned. that story is mild compared to others that I was told -- I was terrified to close my eyes at night because the demons might come in my room. WHO DOES THAT TO A CHILD??? I could hear those stories but wasn't allowed to watch wizard of oz, bednobs and broomsticks, bewitched, the munsters, adams family and on and on.
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A question for all the new ones
by Lady Lee inwhat made you decide to post?.
i know some lurk for a while - sometimes a long while.
others find the site and do a bit of reading and sign and post immediately.
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limbogirl
another great thing about this forum is that it allows my boyfriend to get some perspective on what I went through with JWs. It's hard to explain this stuff to someone who hasn't been around it -- all they know is that JWs don't celebrate holidays and go door to door but it's the rest of the experience growing up JW that is hard to articulate. I showed him the site and gave him my alias and told him to look at my postings and the related threads for some insight. So far I haven't scared him away!!!
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limbogirl
My beautiful two and a half year old son! and making sure that he grows up in a normal, happy, environment with lots of toys on Christmas day!! :)
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A question for all the new ones
by Lady Lee inwhat made you decide to post?.
i know some lurk for a while - sometimes a long while.
others find the site and do a bit of reading and sign and post immediately.
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limbogirl
I've been looking at this forum and others like it for some time -- laughing at some of the stories and experiences and crying at others. I finally joined and began posting because by not doing so I felt like there was still a bit of a hold on me by the wts and my family. Two years ago I divorced my non-baptised, raised in JW world husband. He doesn't go to meetings nor does he believe the JW teachings but he's still very much controlled by them -- he doesn't want to disappoint them. Still goes to the memorial meeting, etc. Although he and I lived a non-JW life for many years we never took it as far as I wanted -- for example, fully celebrating the holidays. Now that I'm divorced I do things the way that I want which includes celebrating the holidays, birthdays, generally loving life and embracing it to its fullest -- the past two years have been the best of my life -- complete freedom to be me. I want my son to grow up with this perspective -- to know that he can be anything he wants to be, he can make choices and celebrate life. I suppose posting on this site was just a natural progression in my recovery from JW-world. Plus, it is such a relief to be able to talk JWspeak with others who fully understand it. Finally, as a JW I grew up "observing" life -- now I'm a participant in this wonderful life we all have and in order to fully participate I felt compelled to join this forum. And a big thanks to all of you who have paved the way for those of us just joining!!!
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perspective on growing up in a jw family after i had my son
by limbogirl incurious to see if anyone else can relate to this....i've been away from jw-world for many years yet really began to have a lot of issues resurface for me when i became a parent two and a half years ago.
.........specifically, i began thinking a lot about my parents raising me and i'm just blown away at the way in which they chose to fill my head with jw teachings from such an early age.
i can't imagine ever teaching my little boy about wicked people, demons, satan, destruction at armageddon and so forth at such a young age.
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limbogirl
curious to see if anyone else can relate to this....I've been away from JW-world for many years yet really began to have a lot of issues resurface for me when I became a parent two and a half years ago. .........Specifically, I began thinking a lot about my parents raising me and I'm just blown away at the way in which they chose to fill my head with JW teachings from such an early age. I can't imagine ever teaching my little boy about wicked people, demons, Satan, destruction at armageddon and so forth at such a young age. Nor can I imagine making him sit in kh meetings for hours upon hours and spanking him if he didn't sit perfectly upright while paying attention. Much less making him go to dc's for all day meetings. My mother is always providing me with advice about raising my son which I generally ignore -- she told me recently that she hoped I would never allow him to read Harry Potter. I thought to myself, better Harry Potter than those awful wt books filled with pictures of armageddon and dead people and destruction. but that was the stuff that I (and a lot of you, too) was raised on -- I'm incredulous now as a parent that this was acceptable to my parents!!
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Anyone ever go on one of those bus trips to bethel?
by limbogirl inback in the late eighties while still in high school instead of doing something fun for spring break i got an all expense paid trip to bethel.
on a bus no less with about 75 other jws headed to the promised land.
somewhere i still have a photo album filled with snapshots of the printing presses and all of the "cadets" happily churning out literature -- and of course all of the female cadets happily scrubbing toilets and doing laundry.
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limbogirl
thanks everyone for sharing stories and Richie Rich -- I looked at all of your links on your trip to bethel in april and I was howling!! thanks for the laughs -- happy to know you made it there and back intact. your pics of stanely theater brought back memories -- I remember thinking it was pretty opulent when I saw it and wondering why all the kh's had to be so ugly and bland.
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Sister "I just have to comment all the time" had my thought...
by wanderlustguy ini was thinking about how one of the cult tactics come into play in such a simple action, like commenting at the meetings.
don't know if it was the same everywhere, but at our hall, sometimes the wt study conductor would call on a couple of people in sequence, the first would give thier comment, then brother "i get to carry the microphone" would run over to the other, just for them to say "he, she had my thought".
just that statement "they had my thought" says so much now.
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limbogirl
undercover: hilarious!!! did he end up jw?