I could have written your post. 11 years ago, I was in the RS presidency. I had 5 kids under 12. Sundays were a nightmare. I began to be depressed and start crying on Friday and took till Tuesday to get over the trauma and exhaustion. I felt like I was torturing myself and my kids.

One day, while nursing my baby in the nursing room, with my 2 year old climbing (literally) over my head, I got tired of the tantrumming 2 year and gave him a swat. I never spanked my kids, and here I was at church doing it. I sat and cried and prayed and realized that God could not possibly want me to go against all my mothering philosophies and intuition and torture my kids with 3 hours of church during all our naptimes (we had the noon-3:00 schedule, with Sac meeting last)

I felt like I had received the revelation that I was to take my children home and all take a nap. I shared this insight with a few overstressed friends and next thing I knew, there was a combined RS PH meeting about the importance of having our kids at church the whole time, and reverence and all kinds of BS.
I KNEW they were wrong and that was my first inkling that this was not a church led by God.

I researched later, but I left because it was making us all miserable, every single week.

I once had an old BYU English professor tell me he saw me as an RS President with five kids. YEESH! I hadn't thought of that until I read your post.

I don't have kids, but I remember that sick, depressed feeling I started to get every Saturday afternoon that didn't leave until Monday morning. It's sad when you start wishing for Monday to come when you're in the middle of Saturday.

Oh and BTW, all 5 of my kids are out and doing well. I have a bi daughter and a gay son and I am so glad I got them out before the church could get at them.

Great you are all out. Congrats. I just can not imagine 3 hrs.in a setting like that. Forced attendance is something that would not work with me. I am too independent minded. As a mom of a convert to Mormonism I often wonder how my daughter will do. She is very stubborn at times and has strong opinions. I am so hoping someone ticks her off so she can get a clue and escape from their grip on her!!!

I have been wondering why SO many Mormon families have such LOUD misbehaved children.

THEY ARE never rested. CHURCH all day...crying and screaming because they are in HELL!!! The stress JUST leaves their bodies by THURSDAY and the Hell starts all over again!

WOW. THANK YOU. When I go to a Mormon's house to visit it will always be on Thursday. ;-)

I used to feel that same unhappiness on the weekend. I used to call it my "Sunday depression." I am a working mother, and it was a challenge keep a demanding career going, plus raise my children alone--but I would look forward to Mondays, and felt much happier during the week, though I was tired. There's a difference between being overworked and being "traumatized and exhausted," as you put it. The cult robbed me of my self esteem, and made me feel uncomfortable in my own skin, as though I didn't have a right to be divorced. I could never do enough for them. If I tried to take a Sunday off, they would make me feel so terrible about it, that it was easier to just stay and attend the meetings. Yeah, my children were miserable, too.

My epiphany was sort of like yours. I was trying to make us all look perfect for church, and we were running late, and the kids were pleading with me not to make them go, like they always did. My son went into the kitchen and accidentally spilled orange juice all over his white shirt. I screamed very loud--eeeeyyyyyaaaaaa! The kids looked at me in horror! This made me examine the kind of pressure I was under. Did God want this for us?

Oh another thing...two year old son (now a wonderful 18 year old) NEVER had tantrums at home, but the minute he saw the chapel he would begin to throw full blown, kicking, screaming, lying on the floor tantrums. I wanted to join him.

One week not long after the epiphany in the original post, I woke up Sunday morning and just started crying. I could nto stop. My (now ex) husband asked me why I was crying and I said I could just not face church. He was happy to forgo the nightmare too (he had low blood sugar issues and was nearly as miserable as the kids as well) So we packed the kids into the car and had an adventure. We drove across the salt flats, went to Wendover and ate fast food. It was a very fun day. We did go back to church the next week and took probably another year to really be out, but knowing how GOOD it felt to play hooky was a real eye opener.

Sometimes children are harder to fool than adults. Little kiddies listen to their instincts, and pick up on bad vibes, much like dogs. That's why the Mormons have to begin the brainwashing as soon as possible!

We all should have run out with our kids! I'm going to give that advice to my daughter, who is married to a TBM.

The truth is, that my children actually did lead me out of the cult.

I think he knew something that I didn't. Instead of snatching him up and taking him back, I should have just ran out with him! Damn kid is obviously smarter than I.

There were several families a lot like yours in the ward I used to attend. This was before I had kids so I couldn't entirely feel their pain, but I had a pretty good idea. The moms looked so worn out and overwhelmed--because remember, the dads were at all those "important" meetings before church even started, which meant the women had to get the kids up, fed, dressed and ready all by themselves. Before sacrament meeting was even over, the kids would be tired, hungry and restless and who could blame them? The dads probably got an hour or two at best with their children the entire day...this from a church that supposedly promotes the importance of family. Seriously????