Fun weekend with TBM family this weekend had a few highlights. My kids haven't been to TSCC since they were little. They don't really know anything about the teachings. My sis and her family are rabidly TBM. The kids are home schooled, which in this case means they are socially stunted and only know the church social norms or other home schooled kids' social norms.

The family arrived and immediately the TBM rules started spewing from my niece. My daughter excitedly told her cousin that she just got swimsuits for the summer, one a tankini. Girl cousin (8) -- my mom won't let me wear two piece swimsuits.

Waiting for dinner at a restaurant, cousin starts trying to teach my daughter "Popcorn Popping" and "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man." She wanted to pray when the food was brought to the table. She informed my daughter that coffee is bad for you. Lol. My daughter (6) said, "No, just kids can't have it. Grown ups drink it everyday." (I was so proud of her for standing up to the TBM craziness!)

My daughter tried telling cousin about a movie. Before she could tell the plot, cousin had to quiz her about it - is there cussing? What's it rated? Is there bad stuff in it? My daughter was frustrated. Of course not, it's just a kid movie!

Anyway, all the cousin could talk about was connected to TSCC. It was really sad. And all of this took place on the first evening of the visit. Once more, I am so relieved to have my kids out of the church. I was once like my niece, spewing church crap all the time because it was all I knew. :(

It's good for your niece to see another way of living. It will broaden her world.

I hope so. Her world is very narrow, thanks to her mom's restrictions. You are a teacher, right? I'm definitely not. However, I am very concerned for this niece and her siblings. Their home schooling doesn't seem to be doing them any favors. I honestly don't know if it is TSCC alone causing the most damage, or the compounded effect of never associating with people/kids who are unlike them. I have a child the same age as this niece. His 3rd grade included multiplication and division, early geometry, a hint of algebra. This niece told me she doesn't know how to do multiplication yet. My sister is doing a horrible injustice, as these children are extremely intelligent. :(

Sounds like we have the same sister.

Mine recently enrolled all of her homeschooled kids into a "real school", and the whole family was relieved. Until we found out it was a virtual charter school and they are still completely isolated from other kids. Even the Utah TBM kids are not good enough to associate with my sister's kids. Sigh.

At least they are going to be using an accredited curriculum now. I guess it's a step forward. But I do not understand how you take kindergarten on line.

I understand! My sister's kids each relate best to the cousin 2 years their junior in my family. My daughter is a normal Kindergartener. Reading is coming along, but she's trying to sound out unfamiliar words. The cousin her age cannot read and speaks below the level of my 4 year old. My kids aren't perfect students by any means. The oldest one has focusing issues, whichakes afternoons very long.

Every child in my sister's family appears to have major issues. I cannot fathom how she thinks she can meet all their needs on her own. I so relieved to have teachers helping with my kids. They give me plenty to work on during homework!

Sorry to vent. It's hard watching the train wreck. My sister doesn't take criticism or suggestions very well. She becomes the victim -"I'm a horrible mom," "I don't know what I'm doing," "I don't know why I can't fit in." She will take the blame for their educational failures. But she is too proud to admit she's incapable of doing their education correctly.

Add the church into this mess, and it's extremely disturbing.

At least it's a chance for your daughter to receive a little inoculation against any future proselytizing from TBM friends or relatives.

I see how sad it is to do that to a child now - to teach them such a narrow view of the world.

I remember when my friend's 6-year-old boy discovered that I had a tattoo. He'd called a lady with a tattoo a 'bad person.' I said, "Well I have a tattoo. Does that make me a bad person?"

He said, "Yes!" I said, "Don't be ridiculous. You've known me your entire life. I'm the same person I was 10 minutes ago, before you found that out. You know that I'm not a bad person."

He looked really confused and conflicted, poor kid. His Mom was mad at me for telling him, but I hope it gave him something to think about. He's about 18 now, I think. I don't know. His Mom dumped me like a hot potato as soon as she found out that I'd left the Church.

Thanks! I do wonder what her kids are being told about their cousins and my husband and me. My sister doesn't confront me about church. Hopefully, her kids will recognize that just because their aunt wore a 2 piece bathing suit, she was still a good person. Time will tell.

I used to go to family events and my older brother's kids used to look at me like I had two heads and avoid me like the plague. I found out later what they were being told about me and it was, of course, pretty ugly. I had the double whammy of being gay as well as apostate so they had a lot to work with in their warnings to their children.

People love their kids and so tell their kids not to cross the street without looking, not to take candy from strangers, and TBM's add a lot of other things to that list, and it's about you, the apostate. And you don't want to know, but you should . . .

Sounds like my niece. My SIL went to the other SIL's house in another state. The one who went does not stay in motels. So she stayed at SIL number 2. Number 2 recently left TSCC. SIL number 1 was demanding they go to church and cornered number 2 and wouldn't let it go. Number 2 finally had enough and told her she was done. SIL number 1 packed up and left without saying goodbye. My niece from SIL number 1 told my kids that the spirit left the house when SIL 2 said she left TSCC. Ok then, I am sure you're mother yelling at her had nothing to do with the negative energy. My niece prays for them to find the truth.

Can't wait until SIL number 1 finds out about us. Should be interesting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2015 09:49AM by shodanrob.

It's funny how TBM's don't want to discuss anything "anti" but they are perfectly fine with (and completely proud of) shoving their crap in our face. I know the niece in question is very young and definitely doesn't know better, but still.

That poor, extremely sheltered child!

I have a granddaughter - she, her brother, and parents live us - who opined that coffee is evil (I drank it in front of her) and I responded that it was "good" coffee and healthy. At eight years old she said she wished I would die: so she could do a baptism for me. Unlike the other TBMs in the house, she refuses to even reply to "good morning". She is now ten and not happy kid. Hopefully, someday she will learn the truth.

I'd probably tell the kid that if they baptized me after death, I'd come back to haunt them. No, I wouldn't really say that, but I'd want to. LOL

I would.

Actually, I told her she couldn't because she's a girl. I also told her that only boys get the priesthood and wasn't that unfair?

Great response! The church certainly has done a number on my sister. She continues to have kids because she hasn't received that "no more for you" answer to her prayers. Poor woman!

I am glad that I realized how prayers worked when I was TBM. Study it out. Ponder about it. Then pray. Amazingly, we never got a surefire "NO!!!!!" Instead, silence left us to interpret our decisions as "Go ahead," and we trusted we'd get that "no" eventually if we were headed down the wrong path.

Thank heavens we never asked if we should keep having kids.

The church takes perfectly normal people and turns them into depressed nut cases. My family is full of them.


The sad part is that is so unnecessary. All the crazy trivial stuff people are trying to do that doesn't matter drive them nuts. If they could just realize its nothing more than made up mumbo jumbo. The ones that add to the rules to try and look even more righteous are riding in a barrel over a big waterfall. All for nothing. Mormonism sucks the life out of life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2015 04:03PM by madalice.