from an RfM post. I asked him "Is she old enough to get married?"

"Oh Hell no!"

He's a pretty straight forward guy.

So I told him JS married a girl this age when he was in his late thirties.
My boy looked sick.
Then I 'influenced' and 'brainwashed' him and said "Never join the Mormon church. Be polite, tell them you don't believe in their BOM, but never join them."

What things have you done to teach your kids about the tricky ways of the TSCC or the history so they won't get caught up in a love bombing some day?

We live where there are not so many Mormons, none in his class at school, none where we socialize and none when we go out and about in the town so he's had limited exposure to them.

I personally wouldn't show him these things yet. I would wait and if he was ever about to join the TSCC then I would show him. 11 is to early in my opinion.

I think it's a good idea to start kids thinking about these things at an early age. It's often too late to reach them once peer pressure and hormones kick in.

If you knew a guy was total scum, wouldn't you tell your friend that BEFORE she was about to get into a relationship with him? Before they're together, your opinion matters more because you're her friend. After they're together, you're just attacking her boyfriend and she can place all kinds of false motives on you (jealousy, wanting her to yourself, whatever). It's the same way with TSCC.

Emotions blind things and first impressions matter. By shaping your son's first impressions of the Mormon church, you are insuring him against a lifetime of grief and involvement with the LDS church. If you waited until he showed serious interest, the Morg would have already shaped his first impression of the church, and it might be too late to save your son from its grasp. Plus, it's not like you told him anything graphic about JS's marriage to young girls. An 11-year-old is definitely not too young to discuss marriage with his father, and also IMO not too young to discuss sexual matters either. You as a parent need to have the first say on these things. In order to have the first say, you have to start early.

In short, well done! :)

by that age that my children knew what it meant, and knew how to avoid being manipulated by religion or emotional appeals, and why.

The side benefit is that they are all really good negotiators when buying cars, something they sure didn't learn from me. They can string salesmen along forever without succumbing.

11 is not too early and like another poster said, it's about the first impression. Way to make the right one!!!!

It is a preventative measure.

The Mormon cult is just one of many other con's, scams, pedophiles and criminals that are out there.

Teaching your child at a very young age, about any kind of lies, manipulation, seduction, coertion and abuse, helps them avoid these pitfalls. I taught my children to be assertive and honest, which has also kept them out of trouble.

No one taught these things to me. In fact, my parents taught me that violence and bullying was acceptable, that it was OK for my brother to abuse me, as long as I kept quiet about it, and didn't "make a fuss." I ended up marrying a violent wife-beater with a hidden history of assault and battery.

I wish someone had innoculated me!

WTG!

If the eventuality of my children or wife meets with Missionaries. I'm going to grill them with questions of the Black segregation, and quote Mc Conkie, since I am Asian. He claims that my people all 2 Billion of the, rejected a side in the war in heaven and thus is subjected to second class citizenship like status.

are you referring to Elizabeth Smart?

Yeah. I'm confused. How is a 23 year old woman not old enough to get married?

Did you mean that you showed your 11-year-old a picture of ES when she was 14? 'Cause then this thread would make sense.

Our church was canceled b/c of snow so I posted a quiz on facebook. The questions were: How many wives did JS have? How old was the youngest wife? The LDS church isn't legally a church, why, and what is it?

I was surprised that not one of my TBM relatives answered any of the questions correctly. Maybe I give them too much credit.

Knowing that my parents would do their best to indoctrinate my 2 kids, I made it clear years before they hit baptism age that I would not allow them to be dunked. My son in particular begged me to let grandpa baptize him but I told him no, and that he would thank me someday. At 12 years old, he is a scientifically minded, very bright little guy who won't let anyone blow smoke up his ass and he has thanked me multiple times for not letting the church get their claws into him. What a shame it would have been if I didn't stand my ground early on. I shudder to think of my son being held back from his natural curiosity by a bunch of drones. My daughter is 11 and goes to activity night but not regular meetings. She likes the social aspect (we are among a small handfull of non-members in our neighborhood) but is also sharp enough to disregard the b.s.

The bishop did me a huge favor by telling me and my wife in writing that we were going to hell when we had our names removed. I let my kids read the letter and they were astounded and gratefull that I taught them to be wary of the church.

I agree with the poster that said the mos indoctrinate at a young age, so why not counter that at a young age as well? No need to demonize anything, just teach them to apply logic and reason and they learn to not fall prey to con-men pretty quickly.