I raised my oldest in the Way. Got her out when she was 10 and she still seems to be affected by it almost 5 years later. I can say that her memories weren't as fond as mine.
I hated the fact that because I was corps I was supposed to hand her off to someone else and have them care for her so I could do the "work of the ministry". M0yn and Mcf@d reprimanded me for not being at a TC meeting and caring for her (at 18months) instead. My ex was there I figured he could tell me what I needed to know but I wasn't going to leave my child if I didn't have to.
If she so much as played with her sock (now this is when she was 3) during prayer time I would get reprimanded afterward. I think even to this day if my kids aren't little angels (and believe me they never are, so imagine my stress levels) I feel like I failed in raising them. It was the most frustrating environment to be a parent in. Everyone judging you everyone making decisions on whether you are parenting correctly or not and that damned wooden spoon. I don't spank my kids anymore. I just take away privileges.
Oh and corps fellowship and the rock. I had to hand her off to people I didn't really know so I could work the event. I saw her very little during the 2 weeks we were there.
My son was in until he was 5 (thank God I was no longer Corps and there were no more ROAs). I was reprimanded when he was 11 months because he cried during a fellowship that was 2 hours long. I got reprimanded during another long fellowship because he made noises with his toy. The child can't sit still for that long but if I didn't come to fellowship I was reprimanded for that.
My youngest got out when she was 3 and I didn't let them do that to her, and to this day she has no idea what we are talking about when we say the way. All she knows is sissy doesn't like it so she doesn't want to go.
With three children, we were treated like we shouldn't have had so many kids. Funny, I remember someone said to "have them by the barrelful."
As the kids got older and twi got more controlling it just got worse and worse. It was impossible to do anything right. We had wooden spoons everwhere. God forbid if you didn't have one handy. When my son, the oldest, got into his teens and started acting like a teenager, our leadership would remind us of the OT verse where unruly children were taken out and stoned.
I'm so glad those days are over. We can just be a family doing family things without meetings, classes and people telling me how to raise my kids as if I were a total moron.
I'm ashamed to say that I was one of those twi parents who was told how to raise her kid. And I'm even more ashamed to say that I actually tried to obey them. For a few years. But it broke my heart. And it didn't work.
Abigail said, “wooden spoons everywhere”. Yes, that pretty much describes it. I was expected to have one in my pocket or in my purse at ALL times. I was even expected to provide a wooden spoon at each adult’s table setting at dinner time, so they couldn’t reach across the table and “tap” my kid.
Now, generally speaking, my kid didn’t get hit hard with the spoon, but it was just this aura of CONSTANT correction. Every stinking little stupid childly thing the kid did got a tap or nudge with the stupid spoon. I remember thinking, “who the heck could possibly live up to these standards, even an adult? Let alone some little kid who was like, 5 or 6 years old !!!”
So, I began holding back. But still, I questioned myself. Who was I to disobey the teachings of the MOG? What if I was wrong and ruining my child for life? I honestly agonized over this stuff. The Word says use the rod... but the rod doesn't work with my kid. All he needs is a word of comfort, a word of explanation, a word of encouragement, and he'd be good as gold. But then, I'm disobeying God...
I didn't consciously come up with a plan, but the result of my inner conflict was that I did just enough for show to keep everyone convinced I was really trying to raise my kid their way, but privately and as much as possible, I dealt with him in my own way. And I definitely got in trouble over it. With my husband. With leadership... It got to the point where I dreaded going to fellowship because there was no doubt in my mind the TC would find something my kid was doing wrong, that was unlearned or disrespectful or openly disobedient (which of course got brought back to my bad parenting skills). -- now, we are talking things like falling asleep in fellowship because it ran past his bedtime, or snuggling close to mommy when he should have been paying attention to the TC, or that he didn't look the TC in the eye when he talked to him, or he didn't sing loudly enough and didn't know the words to all the songs -- Oh My God!!!!
What I'm trying to say is that I was still scared of them. Scared of doing it wrong. So I did enough to appease them when I should have told them to go to he!!. And even though I moderated his treatment, my son was still raised in the middle of all that stress and high demand crap. His father loaded it on him. Expected him to never spill things at the age of six! Expected him to obey every command without questioning, at a time for a kid that is all about questions. And he wondered why his kid didn't greet him joyfully but either ignored him or reacted in fear. (well, duh)
I remember my son getting yelled at because the toilet at the bc’s house overflowed when he flushed it… I was told I should have been in there with him (HUH??? He had been going to the bathroom by himself for a YEAR) and that he didn’t handle the situation right (he immediately ran and got the wife who lived there). That was just one of many, many, many incidents . I began making up ANY excuse to stay home and keep the kid with me!! Sometimes the spouse let us stay home, but mostly he didn't.
When my kid finally got old enough that I could literally see the pressure building up in him, and knew it was going to ruin his life, that was the final kick in the rear to send me packing... left twi, left the marriage. Gave my kid a new start in a lot of ways. And the results were an almost immediate "decompression" back into a normal kid again.
Thank goodness I got out long before my kid was a rebellious teenager! I know of people being counseled to send their kids away rather than let them reflect badly on the household!! (yet the leadership's kid, who was the snarliest, rudest bully of a kid never ever got called on the carpet for his bad acts... of course not!)
I also was raised in twi, but not until I was a teenager, thank God!
My main concern for the children raised in it was the extremely sheltered life they led, without being exposed to anything that was considered "devilish" - no He-Man, no books with magic or fairies, or aliens. No scary movies... and not being allowed to be around other normal children. I have often wondered if this led to extremely rebellious behavior after they were finally out on their own.
It did to me, and my parents weren't that bad! Once I was out of the house, it was like the world was my candy store, and I had as much of it as I possibly could (except for drugs, because I figured that would lead to IMMEDIATE possession, which scared the poop out of me.) Ended up in some bad situations because I didn't understand what was going on - I was toooo niave.
Mr. and Mrs. B - did this happen to you guys, too?
My two kids were raised in twi. We allowed them some space because we knew much was expected of them.
But with that said, one day I asked them would they stand with twi after they left home. They said "no way". That was the final straw in our leaving. My kids helped me to wake up. Bless their hearts they saw the religion. They were hoping for us to finally wake up. They were bored stiff by twi.
My daughter recently told me she is still tramatized every time she hears a vaccuum.
My two kids were raised in twi. We allowed them some space because we knew much was expected of them.
But with that said, one day I asked them would they stand with twi after they left home. They said "no way". That was the final straw in our leaving. My kids helped me to wake up. Bless their hearts they saw the religion. They were hoping for us to finally wake up. They were bored stiff by twi.
My daughter recently told me she is still tramatized every time she hears a vaccuum.
Hmmm. Is vacuum a secret code word for SNS tape?
Aside to PB---------Harmonica players really suck!( and that's a good thing!)
I got reproved for not hitting my kids hard enough with the spoon. I hated all that. When we finally left, the spoons went into the kitchen drawer where they belong.
It was actually easier when our kids started school, because we had an acceptable reason for not dragging them to fellowship. They have few memories of TWI, adn their memories of actual fellowship were not warm and fuzzy.
Seeing how warm and loving my earthly family was toward our kids in constrast to the cold, formal treatment of out coords and others in the fellowship really opened our eyes to something being very wrong. Or kids were never good enough--but then, neither were we!
My oldest was the most affected. Doing much better now--it is good to strive but if you aren't quite perfect it doesn't mean you are worthless.
LCM abolished childrens' fellowships during twig (home fellowships to you young'ns) because the meetings were supposed to be for the whole family. However, to my observation, no changes were made to adjust for the fact that you now had children from birth to teens in the fellowship with the adults. Fellowships were still in the same format and some were interminably long and boring.
My first encounter with this was a fellowship in NC where the WC fellowship coordinator's toddler took advantage of prayer and manifestations to march up and down the coffee table, or kick the daylights out of the other kids, and generally provide as much distraction as possible. His parents thought this was fine.
Second HFC in NC had entirely different ideas and three kids who were older, about 9-12 as I recall. The children were to sit quietly, participate in everything, including the songs, and not twitch. Mine had ADHD so that was a problem. Also, them being Southerners, the children were all required to address adults as Miss First Name or Mr. First Name. Now that reminded me of Gone With the Wind, where the unforgettable Prissy exclaims "Lawdy, Miss Scarlett, I don't know nuthin' about birthin' babies!" so I taught my son Mrs, Miss, Mr. Last Name, and requested children address me the same way. Of course we all especially myself got soundly reproved.
On to the early 90's and the upper left corner of America: More of the same, fellowship from 7=9:30, children sit in, listen silently and unmoving. Eyes on Bible or face of teacher. Mouth shut except to sing.
We were expected to vigously discipline our son for any slight infraction. We were forbidden to put him back on Ritalin (we'd had to take him off it in the FWC) because, as the perfect little Beyotch TC told me: "There is no such thing as ADHD. You need to discipiline your son vigorously every time he disobeys."
One of the reasons the poor guy is so messed up today is that he was always falling far short of the mark of excellence set by these people, who had no problem telling him themselves what a loser he was in spite of our best efforts at reassurance to the contrary. My deepest regret for him is allowing this to go on for as long as it did, instead of calling a screaming halt to it years before we went in the FWC.
I always felt sorry for parents in TWI and, honestly, it was one of my greatest fears.... having kids that I would have to raise according to TWI's standards. I wanted kids desperately (still do), but I am sooooo thankful, now, that I didn't have any with my ex-husband. He's still involved, if that tells you how screwed up my kids would be if we'd had any. :(
I hear ya, Belle. There were several custody battles between divorced parents over who got the kids, and should the involved parent, if not the custodial parent, be allowed to influence the children regarding the custodial but not involved parent. I think more than one spot has posted about that sort of thing, even including TWI trying to influence children against their parents.
This is the first I've heard that they canned children's fellowship during adult fellowships. I can't believe anyone expected children to sit through an adult fellowship for 2.5 hours. Good grief.
I left twi for about a year in the mid-1970s because some a-hole, wet-behind-the-ears interim Corps guy scolded a woman for not being able to keep her infant quiet during fellowship and made her stick him in the next room by himself. I was furious.
He was just an inexperienced, arrogant kid. At that time, none of this stuff was twi doctrine.
If Twig fellowship had gone for 2.5 hours when I was around, I'd have been crying right along with that baby! What the heck were they thinking?
I have some friends who left recently because of they didn't feel their chidren were being taken care of in the fellowship. They began attending a local church just so their kids could spend time learning the Bible from a child perspective. But we were always taugth after they did away with children's fellowship that it was the PARENT'S responsibility to teach them the Word.
I grew up in Sunday school in my preschool days, and I loved it. I wanted to learn all the Bible stories, and it really helped me understand the Bible when I was old enough to read it myself. It's a shame that they couldn't see this, and instead taught these children (as well as the rest of us) that the Bible and God is a burden to be borne without fun, and especially without twitching!
Yeah, it was the parents' responsibility to teach the Word....
WHEN?
You were at fellowship 3 nights a week, when a class wasn't going on. Then there would be a witnessing night, a phone-hookup with HQ, a public ex, and maybe an emergency meeting because someone had to be reproved in front of the whole fellowship for not dusting the top of their refrigerator... Plus, you had to work full-time, take care of the kids, the house, etc. - at least there were no major pets to get in the way. And let's not forget listening to the STS tapes over and over and reading the Way Mag to be up on the Present Truth. Oh, and don't forget to take the time to write the Spank You notes for the crappy class you just wasted 20 hours listening to AGAIN...
I remember them getting rid of children's fellowship "ex cathedra" from lcm, but I really can't remember all his reasons.
Anyone remember if it coincided with his getting angry at the guys who coordinated most of the teen activities? Craig got VERY jealous over how much the teens loved these guys and how it took away from his own glory, so he came up with some lame excuse for axing teen summer school and the teen stage at the Rock. He also blamed the guys in charge. (so typical of him)
But yeah, the poor little tykes then had to sit through all the adult meetings. Not only regular fellowship, which in our area they kept to under an hour, but it was 2-3 times a week. But the worst was the SNS phone hookup... it was boring as crazy for the adults, how did they expect toddlers to stay engaged??? (Idiots.)
No question the kids don't get much out of an adult meeting. Mine says his dad is always shocked at his lack of biblical knowledge. Just can't understand why his kid doesn't know basic biblical principles after attending fellowships his whole life. Hah!
As I recall, the King's reasoning (or un-reasoning) was that it was a FAMILY fellowship so all the family should be there. There was also some talk that the children should learn from the Bible just as adults do, no watered-down word for them. Now my grandson watches Veggie Tales and learns a lot about the Bible, just not the thee's, thou's and thy's.
It was incredibly hard on kids. I remember we had this TC when my son was about 12 and had to get up early to go to school the next morning, and this guy would just go on and on and on. One evening, about 9:15, after droning on for nearly two hours, this guy sounds like he's winding it up, then says "Oh, there's one more verse I want to share with you!" My son threw his head back in his chair and sighed the loudest sigh I've ever heard. I had to stifle myself, because everyone else in the room felt the same way. Surprisingly, none of us got screamed at for that one.
Back in the day, the 70's and early 80's when my husband and I had a fellowship, we always made a point of never going much past an hour during the week, especially if there were little kiddies in our fellowship. But that was before the exceeding great and the glorious wonders of the present truth were revealed unto the reverend Mr. Martindale. I guess one of those wonders was how to torture children with da present fruff, huh?
Yeah, it was the parents' responsibility to teach the Word....
WHEN?
You were at fellowship 3 nights a week, when a class wasn't going on. Then there would be a witnessing night, a phone-hookup with HQ, a public ex, and maybe an emergency meeting because someone had to be reproved in front of the whole fellowship for not dusting the top of their refrigerator... Plus, you had to work full-time, take care of the kids, the house, etc. - at least there were no major pets to get in the way. And let's not forget listening to the STS tapes over and over and reading the Way Mag to be up on the Present Truth. Oh, and don't forget to take the time to write the Spank You notes for the crappy class you just wasted 20 hours listening to AGAIN...
PHEW...
By then, the kids are 19 and have LEFT the house.
I just learned about this recently, but when I left home at that age, an ignorant brick, my parents were told by leadership that they were bad parents and needed to apologize to me for not raising me right. (They didn't, thank God)
I've been very angry at my folks for events that occured around that time, strange decisions that they made for me, only now to find out it was twi leadership that was calling the shots.
I had been in twi for six years before we had a child and we left when our son was 6 1/2 so he was spared a lot of turmoil, but those are formative years. He has said his family corps time was fun, probably because he's such a social person. Except for one interim corps beyotch, the people around him in children's activities and our other family corps were cool.
The times I regret are the times before we went in residence when I rushed through bedtime stories so I could get the house ready for the class/fellowship/leader's meeting/time-sucker of your choice. I wish I could have those nights back, that I could have savored his early years without always being in such a dam n ed rush.
He's a grown man now and a wonderful person with a big heart, but I have to tell you every time he hit a rough spot growing up I agonized if it was because of all the twi garbage.
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FreeAtLast
I raised my oldest in the Way. Got her out when she was 10 and she still seems to be affected by it almost 5 years later. I can say that her memories weren't as fond as mine.
I hated the fact that because I was corps I was supposed to hand her off to someone else and have them care for her so I could do the "work of the ministry". M0yn and Mcf@d reprimanded me for not being at a TC meeting and caring for her (at 18months) instead. My ex was there I figured he could tell me what I needed to know but I wasn't going to leave my child if I didn't have to.
If she so much as played with her sock (now this is when she was 3) during prayer time I would get reprimanded afterward. I think even to this day if my kids aren't little angels (and believe me they never are, so imagine my stress levels) I feel like I failed in raising them. It was the most frustrating environment to be a parent in. Everyone judging you everyone making decisions on whether you are parenting correctly or not and that damned wooden spoon. I don't spank my kids anymore. I just take away privileges.
Oh and corps fellowship and the rock. I had to hand her off to people I didn't really know so I could work the event. I saw her very little during the 2 weeks we were there.
My son was in until he was 5 (thank God I was no longer Corps and there were no more ROAs). I was reprimanded when he was 11 months because he cried during a fellowship that was 2 hours long. I got reprimanded during another long fellowship because he made noises with his toy. The child can't sit still for that long but if I didn't come to fellowship I was reprimanded for that.
My youngest got out when she was 3 and I didn't let them do that to her, and to this day she has no idea what we are talking about when we say the way. All she knows is sissy doesn't like it so she doesn't want to go.
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outintexas
With three children, we were treated like we shouldn't have had so many kids. Funny, I remember someone said to "have them by the barrelful."
As the kids got older and twi got more controlling it just got worse and worse. It was impossible to do anything right. We had wooden spoons everwhere. God forbid if you didn't have one handy. When my son, the oldest, got into his teens and started acting like a teenager, our leadership would remind us of the OT verse where unruly children were taken out and stoned.
I'm so glad those days are over. We can just be a family doing family things without meetings, classes and people telling me how to raise my kids as if I were a total moron.
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outandabout
One time when I was at twig, this kid fell asleep. The twig leader's wife grabbed him and hauled him off and screamed at him.
(She was a b1tch anyways)
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TheHighWay
I'm ashamed to say that I was one of those twi parents who was told how to raise her kid. And I'm even more ashamed to say that I actually tried to obey them. For a few years. But it broke my heart. And it didn't work.
Abigail said, “wooden spoons everywhere”. Yes, that pretty much describes it. I was expected to have one in my pocket or in my purse at ALL times. I was even expected to provide a wooden spoon at each adult’s table setting at dinner time, so they couldn’t reach across the table and “tap” my kid.
Now, generally speaking, my kid didn’t get hit hard with the spoon, but it was just this aura of CONSTANT correction. Every stinking little stupid childly thing the kid did got a tap or nudge with the stupid spoon. I remember thinking, “who the heck could possibly live up to these standards, even an adult? Let alone some little kid who was like, 5 or 6 years old !!!”
So, I began holding back. But still, I questioned myself. Who was I to disobey the teachings of the MOG? What if I was wrong and ruining my child for life? I honestly agonized over this stuff. The Word says use the rod... but the rod doesn't work with my kid. All he needs is a word of comfort, a word of explanation, a word of encouragement, and he'd be good as gold. But then, I'm disobeying God...
I didn't consciously come up with a plan, but the result of my inner conflict was that I did just enough for show to keep everyone convinced I was really trying to raise my kid their way, but privately and as much as possible, I dealt with him in my own way. And I definitely got in trouble over it. With my husband. With leadership... It got to the point where I dreaded going to fellowship because there was no doubt in my mind the TC would find something my kid was doing wrong, that was unlearned or disrespectful or openly disobedient (which of course got brought back to my bad parenting skills). -- now, we are talking things like falling asleep in fellowship because it ran past his bedtime, or snuggling close to mommy when he should have been paying attention to the TC, or that he didn't look the TC in the eye when he talked to him, or he didn't sing loudly enough and didn't know the words to all the songs -- Oh My God!!!!
What I'm trying to say is that I was still scared of them. Scared of doing it wrong. So I did enough to appease them when I should have told them to go to he!!. And even though I moderated his treatment, my son was still raised in the middle of all that stress and high demand crap. His father loaded it on him. Expected him to never spill things at the age of six! Expected him to obey every command without questioning, at a time for a kid that is all about questions. And he wondered why his kid didn't greet him joyfully but either ignored him or reacted in fear. (well, duh)
I remember my son getting yelled at because the toilet at the bc’s house overflowed when he flushed it… I was told I should have been in there with him (HUH??? He had been going to the bathroom by himself for a YEAR) and that he didn’t handle the situation right (he immediately ran and got the wife who lived there). That was just one of many, many, many incidents . I began making up ANY excuse to stay home and keep the kid with me!! Sometimes the spouse let us stay home, but mostly he didn't.
When my kid finally got old enough that I could literally see the pressure building up in him, and knew it was going to ruin his life, that was the final kick in the rear to send me packing... left twi, left the marriage. Gave my kid a new start in a lot of ways. And the results were an almost immediate "decompression" back into a normal kid again.
Thank goodness I got out long before my kid was a rebellious teenager! I know of people being counseled to send their kids away rather than let them reflect badly on the household!! (yet the leadership's kid, who was the snarliest, rudest bully of a kid never ever got called on the carpet for his bad acts... of course not!)
edited for typos
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JavaJane
I also was raised in twi, but not until I was a teenager, thank God!
My main concern for the children raised in it was the extremely sheltered life they led, without being exposed to anything that was considered "devilish" - no He-Man, no books with magic or fairies, or aliens. No scary movies... and not being allowed to be around other normal children. I have often wondered if this led to extremely rebellious behavior after they were finally out on their own.
It did to me, and my parents weren't that bad! Once I was out of the house, it was like the world was my candy store, and I had as much of it as I possibly could (except for drugs, because I figured that would lead to IMMEDIATE possession, which scared the poop out of me.) Ended up in some bad situations because I didn't understand what was going on - I was toooo niave.
Mr. and Mrs. B - did this happen to you guys, too?
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polar bear
My two kids were raised in twi. We allowed them some space because we knew much was expected of them.
But with that said, one day I asked them would they stand with twi after they left home. They said "no way". That was the final straw in our leaving. My kids helped me to wake up. Bless their hearts they saw the religion. They were hoping for us to finally wake up. They were bored stiff by twi.
My daughter recently told me she is still tramatized every time she hears a vaccuum.
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waysider
Hmmm. Is vacuum a secret code word for SNS tape?
Aside to PB---------Harmonica players really suck!( and that's a good thing!)
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Bramble
I got reproved for not hitting my kids hard enough with the spoon. I hated all that. When we finally left, the spoons went into the kitchen drawer where they belong.
It was actually easier when our kids started school, because we had an acceptable reason for not dragging them to fellowship. They have few memories of TWI, adn their memories of actual fellowship were not warm and fuzzy.
Seeing how warm and loving my earthly family was toward our kids in constrast to the cold, formal treatment of out coords and others in the fellowship really opened our eyes to something being very wrong. Or kids were never good enough--but then, neither were we!
My oldest was the most affected. Doing much better now--it is good to strive but if you aren't quite perfect it doesn't mean you are worthless.
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TheHighWay
Boy, that says it all, doesn't it?
It took me a couple of years to really get that message into my kid's head post-twi.
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Watered Garden
LCM abolished childrens' fellowships during twig (home fellowships to you young'ns) because the meetings were supposed to be for the whole family. However, to my observation, no changes were made to adjust for the fact that you now had children from birth to teens in the fellowship with the adults. Fellowships were still in the same format and some were interminably long and boring.
My first encounter with this was a fellowship in NC where the WC fellowship coordinator's toddler took advantage of prayer and manifestations to march up and down the coffee table, or kick the daylights out of the other kids, and generally provide as much distraction as possible. His parents thought this was fine.
Second HFC in NC had entirely different ideas and three kids who were older, about 9-12 as I recall. The children were to sit quietly, participate in everything, including the songs, and not twitch. Mine had ADHD so that was a problem. Also, them being Southerners, the children were all required to address adults as Miss First Name or Mr. First Name. Now that reminded me of Gone With the Wind, where the unforgettable Prissy exclaims "Lawdy, Miss Scarlett, I don't know nuthin' about birthin' babies!" so I taught my son Mrs, Miss, Mr. Last Name, and requested children address me the same way. Of course we all especially myself got soundly reproved.
On to the early 90's and the upper left corner of America: More of the same, fellowship from 7=9:30, children sit in, listen silently and unmoving. Eyes on Bible or face of teacher. Mouth shut except to sing.
We were expected to vigously discipline our son for any slight infraction. We were forbidden to put him back on Ritalin (we'd had to take him off it in the FWC) because, as the perfect little Beyotch TC told me: "There is no such thing as ADHD. You need to discipiline your son vigorously every time he disobeys."
One of the reasons the poor guy is so messed up today is that he was always falling far short of the mark of excellence set by these people, who had no problem telling him themselves what a loser he was in spite of our best efforts at reassurance to the contrary. My deepest regret for him is allowing this to go on for as long as it did, instead of calling a screaming halt to it years before we went in the FWC.
WG
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Belle
I always felt sorry for parents in TWI and, honestly, it was one of my greatest fears.... having kids that I would have to raise according to TWI's standards. I wanted kids desperately (still do), but I am sooooo thankful, now, that I didn't have any with my ex-husband. He's still involved, if that tells you how screwed up my kids would be if we'd had any. :(
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Watered Garden
I hear ya, Belle. There were several custody battles between divorced parents over who got the kids, and should the involved parent, if not the custodial parent, be allowed to influence the children regarding the custodial but not involved parent. I think more than one spot has posted about that sort of thing, even including TWI trying to influence children against their parents.
Such wicked behavior!
WG
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Linda Z
This is the first I've heard that they canned children's fellowship during adult fellowships. I can't believe anyone expected children to sit through an adult fellowship for 2.5 hours. Good grief.
I left twi for about a year in the mid-1970s because some a-hole, wet-behind-the-ears interim Corps guy scolded a woman for not being able to keep her infant quiet during fellowship and made her stick him in the next room by himself. I was furious.
He was just an inexperienced, arrogant kid. At that time, none of this stuff was twi doctrine.
If Twig fellowship had gone for 2.5 hours when I was around, I'd have been crying right along with that baby! What the heck were they thinking?
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Bramble
Our area quit having Children's fellowship, too. The adults needed to be in the meeting to hear the golden words.
As for young kids in long meetings--well, you had your spoon.
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JavaJane
I have some friends who left recently because of they didn't feel their chidren were being taken care of in the fellowship. They began attending a local church just so their kids could spend time learning the Bible from a child perspective. But we were always taugth after they did away with children's fellowship that it was the PARENT'S responsibility to teach them the Word.
I grew up in Sunday school in my preschool days, and I loved it. I wanted to learn all the Bible stories, and it really helped me understand the Bible when I was old enough to read it myself. It's a shame that they couldn't see this, and instead taught these children (as well as the rest of us) that the Bible and God is a burden to be borne without fun, and especially without twitching!
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ChasUFarley
Yeah, it was the parents' responsibility to teach the Word....
WHEN?
You were at fellowship 3 nights a week, when a class wasn't going on. Then there would be a witnessing night, a phone-hookup with HQ, a public ex, and maybe an emergency meeting because someone had to be reproved in front of the whole fellowship for not dusting the top of their refrigerator... Plus, you had to work full-time, take care of the kids, the house, etc. - at least there were no major pets to get in the way. And let's not forget listening to the STS tapes over and over and reading the Way Mag to be up on the Present Truth. Oh, and don't forget to take the time to write the Spank You notes for the crappy class you just wasted 20 hours listening to AGAIN...
PHEW...
By then, the kids are 19 and have LEFT the house.
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TheHighWay
I remember them getting rid of children's fellowship "ex cathedra" from lcm, but I really can't remember all his reasons.
Anyone remember if it coincided with his getting angry at the guys who coordinated most of the teen activities? Craig got VERY jealous over how much the teens loved these guys and how it took away from his own glory, so he came up with some lame excuse for axing teen summer school and the teen stage at the Rock. He also blamed the guys in charge. (so typical of him)
But yeah, the poor little tykes then had to sit through all the adult meetings. Not only regular fellowship, which in our area they kept to under an hour, but it was 2-3 times a week. But the worst was the SNS phone hookup... it was boring as crazy for the adults, how did they expect toddlers to stay engaged??? (Idiots.)
No question the kids don't get much out of an adult meeting. Mine says his dad is always shocked at his lack of biblical knowledge. Just can't understand why his kid doesn't know basic biblical principles after attending fellowships his whole life. Hah!
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Watered Garden
As I recall, the King's reasoning (or un-reasoning) was that it was a FAMILY fellowship so all the family should be there. There was also some talk that the children should learn from the Bible just as adults do, no watered-down word for them. Now my grandson watches Veggie Tales and learns a lot about the Bible, just not the thee's, thou's and thy's.
It was incredibly hard on kids. I remember we had this TC when my son was about 12 and had to get up early to go to school the next morning, and this guy would just go on and on and on. One evening, about 9:15, after droning on for nearly two hours, this guy sounds like he's winding it up, then says "Oh, there's one more verse I want to share with you!" My son threw his head back in his chair and sighed the loudest sigh I've ever heard. I had to stifle myself, because everyone else in the room felt the same way. Surprisingly, none of us got screamed at for that one.
Back in the day, the 70's and early 80's when my husband and I had a fellowship, we always made a point of never going much past an hour during the week, especially if there were little kiddies in our fellowship. But that was before the exceeding great and the glorious wonders of the present truth were revealed unto the reverend Mr. Martindale. I guess one of those wonders was how to torture children with da present fruff, huh?
WG
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Bolshevik
I just learned about this recently, but when I left home at that age, an ignorant brick, my parents were told by leadership that they were bad parents and needed to apologize to me for not raising me right. (They didn't, thank God)
I've been very angry at my folks for events that occured around that time, strange decisions that they made for me, only now to find out it was twi leadership that was calling the shots.
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ChasUFarley
Whoever told them that should be kicked in the teeth - your parental units rock. There was never a nicer couple!
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Bolshevik
Same guy you mentioned on another thread recently.
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ChasUFarley
<_< Figgers...
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Bramble
TWI Leaders = heads of every household.
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tonto
I had been in twi for six years before we had a child and we left when our son was 6 1/2 so he was spared a lot of turmoil, but those are formative years. He has said his family corps time was fun, probably because he's such a social person. Except for one interim corps beyotch, the people around him in children's activities and our other family corps were cool.
The times I regret are the times before we went in residence when I rushed through bedtime stories so I could get the house ready for the class/fellowship/leader's meeting/time-sucker of your choice. I wish I could have those nights back, that I could have savored his early years without always being in such a dam n ed rush.
He's a grown man now and a wonderful person with a big heart, but I have to tell you every time he hit a rough spot growing up I agonized if it was because of all the twi garbage.
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