Today we have a question from one of our readers and it comes from Charlene, and she asks;
I can’t seem to make my husband wake up and see what is happening to our country, he refuses to get involved with my “crazy prepping” as he calls it. What is the best way to get other family members on board?
Getting other family members on board can be tough, especially if they have not been exposed to the same “truths” that you and I have.
However, sometimes even if they have read what we have and know what we know, they still choose to believe that “everything will be alright”.
This is the typical ‘sheeple’ mentality that the vast majority of the population have and it’s a damn shame.
What worked for me
Start with painting scenarios to gently help get family members on board.
One of the things that worked for me with my partner was a two pronged attack.
First, you should provide a scenario that he/she can really relate too, something that is close to their hearts and you know will grab their attention.
Secondly, you need to keep it super simple and fairly light-hearted. If you come on too strong you risk them pulling away.
For example.
We have a cat we rescued from the rescue center and she absolutely loves this cat…so I decided that I would use that to my advantage and created a “what if…” scenario about a fire in the middle of the night.
I proceeded to ask her questions such as;
- How would we gather the pets and carry them to safety?
- Who would be in charge of that and what would the other person do?
- Can we easily access the door key to unlock them?
- Who would we call and do we have important documents that we would need (home insurance etc)
- What clothing would we wear once outside of the house?
- Do we have a bag with clothes and other essentials that is easy to grab on short notice?
You may think that these questions are far too simple, however they need to be to get your other-half thinking.
For me a situation like this is a VERY HIGH possibility for anyone and is an easy “sell” to other family members. Without knowing your situation and exactly what you are preparing for, I would say that if you keep things on a simple level and use things you know your partner can easily relate too, it always helps.
The first step is have them accept that they need to take control of their own survival. Then you can start breaking down the other boundaries.
In fact it’s probably bets not to refer to it as survival or prepping. I like to use the term INSURANCE.
We have insurance against our vehicle, our home, medical and pet cover too, so why not add food, water and extra clothes as a form of insurance.
I don’t think there is a one size fits all, if you have children, depending on their age, different approaches may be needed. However from speaking with many of you I know that kids in general have a great curiosity for this kind of ‘adventure’, and that’s just what it is, it’s an adventure.
I would love to hear what you have tried that helped to get other family members on board?
Stay safe,
John
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Hello,
Interesting article, and a perspective I had not thought of…
What worked for me on getting my wife on-board to prepping: I called it “suggestive nagging”. We tend to watch the news together quite a bit. And every time there was a story (local, national, international) about a disaster that caused pain and suffering to many people, I would point out what those folks had not done in order to be better prepared (prime example – Hurricane Sandy). I would also point out how easily they could have avoided many of their problems by having done this or that. Well, over the course of one year, I’m patient, I noticed that my wife started pointing out how folks were terribly unprepared for what ever they were facing. That’s when I asked her, “So, maybe you think this whole prepping thing isn’t so crazy after all?” And she agreed. Granted, I’m retired and she has a full-time job, so I do most of the coordinating, ordering, and planning. But, whenever she’s available, she contributes. And that’s how it worked out for us.