Hi Lisa,
:The organization wishes to be seen as our mother. Complete with dysfunction, if you disappoint your 'mother' you will be guilt tripped like there's no tomorrow. When children of devout JWs grow up, they are often so consumed with disappointing both sets of 'parents', they are never free to live their own lives.
I agree! they do! and it's very hard to try to please "both sets" of parents even for JW adults, let alone the added burden of being a teen. And for older teens dating (like say 17 or 18), that leaves 3 sets of parents to please! How much can teens and young adults take?
:I was talking to a sister at the hall i go to (sporadically, --just to keep an eye on everything, LOL) this weekend...she was telling me how important it is to do everything as a 'family'. This sister/brother have 3 children, early teens. I told her it was a fallacy, children need to have some level of independence in order to cultivate their own personalities.... Especially teens, whose personalities are often compromised by their parents desires.
You hit the nail on the head again! :-) I agree that families should do things together, even if it's just watching a sitcom on tv, because if you've ever done that before, you all seem to add your own thoughts and comments in and you get to understand each other more. Especially for parents with kids or teens. If parents LISTEN to their children's/teens views, their views are usually the same as the parent's were when they were t he same age. That helps to let a parent ALLOW for their children to be themselves without being unreasonable with them, and making them feel guilty for their every REAL thought. And I really have to say that if you are the same person who used to post on a now defunct board, you were one of the most honest people on it.
and like larc already asked, what was the sister's response to you?
:I'll stop here before I ramble, but what are your thoughts?
ah come on...do ya have to? :-)
peace,
somebody