"you WILL go to church"
"I don't care you are doing. you WILL come and read scriptures, have FHE, have family prayer..."

tbms don't realize force doesn't mean they'll eventually want to or even will be in the mindset to pay attention/care.

so why make them?

It's a power trip.

Besides, you don't want your kids to end up in hell, do you? They might blame you.

Most Mormon parents don't understand that principles, such as morals, ethics, love, conscience need to be nurtured in children, and don't automatically happen as a result of baptism. These principles can't be taught in group Sunday school class, or in school, by someone else. These are taught mainly through love, by example, by cause and effect, behavior and natural consequences. Not by simple reward and punishment for obeying and disobeying orders.

To put it more simply, unless these basic principles are INTERNALIZED, they will not stick. A simple example is that when the motivation is externalized by a strict, forceful parent, the child will not act on his own volition. He has no inner motivation to do the act. When my parents and all of my TSCC classes and institutes finally stopped pestering me to read the scriptures (7 times), I had no inner desire to ever read them again. Same with attending meetings, paying tithing, going to the temple, and all the rest of it.

Leaving the cult happened backwards for a lot of us. First of all, we grew up and, as adults, freed ourselves from shame, fear, guilt, bullying, and abuse. We separated ourselves from the adults who were doing this to us. The second step was, when all that negative stuff was gone, we suddenly saw the Truth, and all the choices, all the goodness, and the happiness in the real world.

gorgeous.

That's exactly how my parents were. If I said I didn't want to go to church they'd threaten to take away my privileges, ground me, accuse me of "sinning", etc. I told my mom I didn't believe in the church anymore when I was 16 and she basically told me to fake it until I believe it and that it was disrespectful to her and my dad if I didn't go. My sister got married and left (both our home and the church) at 19 and I eloped at 20 to get away. My brother (who is now 23) still lives at home and was forced to go to church up until last year, despite telling my parents multiple times he no longer had a testimony.

I figure parents think that if we continued going, despite no longer believing, that some miracle may lead to us being re inspired with the "truth" of the gospel. That thinking is completely delusional. Being forced to go against my will just made me hate it even more.