Having deceived us, sucked us dry, taken our money, harmed our children, divided our family, ruined my life these bloody mormon relations of mine are now trying to bring some of my children back into the church. The love bombing is intense and they have managed to make me look like I am the problem.

They are incredible. It is very difficult to just drop them because they are so entwined with my children, to do so would certainly alienate my kids. They attack me for leaving the church and look at every misfortune in my life as and point it out as an example of God punishing me for leaving their stupid church. I hate mormonism! I am so angry right now, I feel so powerless to stop them. i just hope my kids have enough brains to not get caught up in all this again but they are still young and perhaps immature to realize what is going on. They blame me for them losing their mormon "friends" when we left the church.

You can innoculate your children by making sure they know the true history of the Church. I don't know how old they are, but make sure they know all the resources available to them in order to study that truth.

ChurchCo will NEVER be satisfied with the Basics of a life of Faith: Honesty, Kindness, Charity; Repentance & Forgiveness, Mercy & Compassion.

those have Left the Building.

And in their place ChurchCo puts...?

Maybe you should ask your children why, if their Mormon "friends" were genuine friends, that they have lost them since leaving the church?

So tired... I'm tired, too.

Mormons separate the children from the adults, in order to have free access to them, in order to indoctrinate them. You need to BE THERE. Don't let them be alone with Mormons. I'm serious about this.

Mormons try to discredit non-or ex-Mormon parents, with their own children. They will malign parents who leave the church, who get divorced, who don't go to the temple, etc.

Your children need your help! You, yourself have had problems with Mormons and their cult--we all have--so how do you expect innocent children to stand up to these manipulators? It is up to you to protect them. Teach them the truth, or if they're older, guide them to discover the truth for themselves. Once they know about temple rituals for the dead, the costumes, the underwear, the different stories about golden plates, polygamy, BOM and DNA, the Book of Abraham, and all the other lies, they will come to the conclusion that the Mormons are wrong, and the rest of the world is right.

You are wise to do something about this. You could lay down the law with your relatives, but in my experience, nothing stops these people from stalking your children. That's why we suggest you "inoculate" your children with the Truth.

Very liitle control over what other people choose to believe. Some kids never believe in it. My nephew was dragged to church Sundays and baptised out of pressure at 8. Now as an 18 year old he told me he has never believed it even as a small kid, so some don't buy in no matter how they are coerced.

I ask because you may have more influence by appealing to age-appropriate non-Mormon interests. The kids may be responding positively to the church because of an increase in attention and novelty. If so, that will tail off. Think long-term and strategically. I'd be upset, too, but stay cool, make a plan that is positive and appropriate for your kids and work on it. My bets are on *you* over the long haul.

Thank you all for your advice. my children are in their teens, a difficult time of life at the best of times. I'll keep trying but some days I just feel completely defeated.

Being a parent--a parent of teens--can be really tough without the church and others getting in the way. There are definitely days you will feel defeated. The good thing is part of being a teen is developing a BS detector. If you are calm and matter-of-fact the church may well be what they hone their BS detection skills on (instead of you, their parent :p). When they tell you about church stuff or what the relatives tell them about you, ask them what they think and be prepared to listen. Give calm, even, and brief feedback that encourages them to think but doesn't sound like you are trying to tell them how to think.

I have been in this situation. My advice: love them through this. My love for my children eventually won out. There really is something to that love thing. The people at church can NEVER love your kids the way you do.

I do love my children and will always love them but they are young and are angry and blame me for things that they should be blaming mormonism for. I did not lie to them and was as much an innocent victim of mormon deception as they are. When I finally found out what a load of Shit it all was I made the decision to leave and my wife at the time agreed.

Don't underestimate the power of this church to destroy love itself. i am reminded how some years ago a man who had converted to mormonism and then fell away was eventually driven to kill his wife and young children, and himself because the church was interfering in his family life and the wife was being encouraged by the members to leave him. He did a terrible thing but it shows how things can go so terribly wrong. I still have the newspaper clippings about this tragedy, the church and the members that were interviewed made the guy out to be crazy but the non member family of this man say that he was deeply depressed by the psospect of losing his family. I'll keep loving my family its all I can do but it really hurts some days to be blamed and attacked the way my children and these mormon relations do

...that the teens (particularly the mid-teens) can be a rough time anyway. If they weren't blaming you for this, it would probably be something else. As a child psych professor of mine once said...this is what eventually gets kids out of the house, and out on their own, and that's a good thing. It's part of the normal development process.

Having said that, you are still the parent. I think that you would be within bounds to tell your relations to "cut it out." Tell them that you are finished with the church and that there is to be no more love-bombing of your kids or efforts to alienate them from you. While you need not drop these relatives, there would be nothing wrong with putting a bit of distance between them and your family for a while. Keep your family busy, particularly on Sundays. Take them on fun day trips and adventures. If you can get away for an occasional weekend, do so.

Groan.....that is such a sad story. I am sure that it is not that uncommon, which makes it even worse. My heart just breaks for the misery and pain that so many members of this church suffer silently through. I hold out great hope that sites like this can spare someone from such a tragic outcome.

Are you in Utah? My son is in 9th grade, he would love some friends, and would be a "good" influence.....

The worst my family did was my brother who got my son a bom for his 8th birthday even though we told him we left before that and my son was not baptized. He doesn't press anymore thank goodness.