Silent-This post definitely touches a nerve for me. I grew up with the same circumstances and ridiculous JW sayings that you did. Being commended for being faithful, then it turns around to being not humble. All the things we missed out on.
My daughter commented yesterday that it was against the bible to have birthday parties. I told her, 'actually, the bible doesn't say anything about birthday parties being bad', so she amended it to, 'we believe birthday parties are bad'. I'm hoping that by continually pointing out that things we are taught are true, really aren't in the bible at all, or are corrupted to sound a certain way, to keep control of everyone.