convincing the lady to prep.

[Mudbass7 10]

So a few days ago, my girlfriend, 4 y/o, and I all went to Disneyland for the day. We decided it would be best to pack food, water, spare clothes, etc into a backpack and take it to the park with us so we don't spend a gazillionbillionomgwtf dollars on food and water in the park. i decided to go shopping for said items the night before we left and the girlfriend wasn't too keen on going out that night so i had her stay home and *gulp* empty out the only backpack we have... my BOB. Upon my rearrival, i get posed a question: "are you planning to be kidnapped by some third world terrorists or something?" she asks as she holds up my shemagh. i thought for a moment and replied with "i suppose that's possible." and began wondering about how i would deal with being kidnapped... needless to say, my response was somewhat underwhelming on her end. while she does not prep, she also has no problem with me prepping. She just doesn't see the sense in it and for the life of me i can't seem to get her to get it either. Anyone else had the same problem? How did you deal with it? Or should i just wait and smile when i get to pull the "told ya so" card? Good thing is that i have alot of support from her family at all angles...

Also. Wearing a backpack with 3 liters of water, some gatorade, food for four (girlfriend is pregnant and in nom mode) and spare clothes for everyone for 15 hours around a park is no fun.

[oregonchick 10]

The trick with Disneyland is cutting back on weight by not carrying so much water! Small bottles that you refill at drinking fountains works. What also works is purchasing a drink when you're first there, asking for lots of ice, taking your time drinking it and savoring the ice, THEN refilling with water. LOL But the food for a pregnant GF simply cannot be helped. ;-)

 

There have been a few threads on this subject before; here are a couple of links so you can view them:

 

http://www.survivalcache.com/forums/showthread.php?1711-trying-to-convince-family-members-to-Prep.

 

http://www.survivalcache.com/forums/showthread.php?1438-Helping-to-bring-the-wife-on-board...help

 

http://www.survivalcache.com/forums/showthread.php?1112

 

 

I think there are several approaches that others have mentioned that might work. They include:

 

Start slow. Don't worst-case-scenario your GF to death with the scariest possible ideas (total collapse of government, failure of infrastructure/electrical grid/fuel, etc.). Instead, suggest prepping for the smallest and most likely scenarios for where you live. These are usually natural disasters, and may be different depending on your location: bad weather, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, rolling blackouts. Once you get the basics handled, you can start devoting time/resources to more specific and dire scenarios. And she may get caught up in the "if X happens, then we'd need Y" mindset as you think through these together.

 

Enlist the help of the government. Yes, you heard me right! FEMA has actually created a program to help people prep, knowing that the more people who can take care of themselves, the less overtaxed responders will be when a natural or other kind of disaster occurs. There's a lot of great beginner information - including persuasive arguments about why you should prep - on their site: http://www.ready.gov/

 

Talk about finances. Food preps can actually work for long-term cost savings and make a lot of sense for a family that will consume a lot of food over the course of a year. Some of them can save a lot of time everyday because you prep meals ahead of time, so there will be a couple of days of heavy cooking a month, and the rest of the time you coast on what's been done. There are tons of Mormon mommy bloggers online who give GREAT food prep advice (having a year's worth of food set aside is something most Mormon families strive to do). Here are a couple I like: http://saltnprepper.com/ , http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/2011/04/emergency-preparedness-and-everyday.html , http://www.yourownhomestore.com/

 

Make it a hobby. You can focus on a few aspects that you and your girlfriend will do together, and assume the responsibility for the remainder of your preps. What does she like to do? A lot of BOB supplies and survival skills can be purchased and practiced if you like to camp or hike. There's a lot to be said for being able to create your own food if there's no infrastructure; how about building a home garden using non-hybrid (i.e., heirloom) seeds? You can even do that on a balcony or indoors if you don't have a lot of property right now. Hunting and fishing are other useful skills that can be good family activities. Even just committing to activities that promote physical fitness, building up endurance and ensuring overall health, will pay off if something bad happens down the road.

 

Try an indirect approach. One of the forum links I provided above is a thread about books that inspired wives and girlfriends to prep. If your GF likes to read (or watch movies), bringing her items that have a prepping theme may help open her eyes or at least make her more receptive to a prepping lifestyle. Don't beat her over the head with it, just make the stuff available and be enthusiastic if/when she wants to talk about it.

 

Good luck!

[Mudbass7 10]

Thanks alot for the help Oregonchick! she has posed some interest in going hiking, and while that may be out of the picture right now, maybe we can start buying supplies for next year. maybe that will get her into it...

[oregonchick 10]

Happy to help! I think the good thing is just to get a toehold wherever you can, and rather than trying to push her into sharing your enthusiasm, be glad for those places where she's willing to contribute. It seems like the longer people prep in one area, the more likely it is that they'll start considering other preps/scenarios, so you may slowly get her to be fully involved. Your patience will definitely pay off.

 

I'm also wondering about bringing the four-year-old in on this. My cousins are slowly moving off-the-grid, and one of their big things is having a HUGE home garden that provides a substantial amount of the food they eat. It was a small thing they introduced to their kids when they were barely toddlers, but they would get so excited to help plant and water the garden, watch it grow, and then get to harvest and eat what they grew, that their garden went from a single raised bed to a mini-farm. The boys get to help pick what veggies they grow each year, and are very hands-on in every aspect of tending their plots. It's a great learning experience for children to garden, but it pays off when they not only learn to love to eat fruits and veggies, but also have a real life skill that can help them if grocery stores are no longer available.

[Mudbass7 10]

Yeah i'm already planning to get a garden going when i get my house (hopefully within the next two months...) so that the little one has some sort of exposure. i remember my grandpas garden growing up, it was always fun helping plant, take care of, and finally pull/eat the finished product.

[oregonchick 10]

I know! My grandma always had a pretty substantial garden, although a lot of it was devoted to flowers (which I did love to pick). Still, I will probably always love peas because of the joy of picking and eating the peas right out of their sun-warmed pods. They were my second-favorite childhood snack food - the first, of course, was whatever cookies she baked!

[Ready?4What? 10]

Lotsa good info here:

http://thesurvivalmom.com/

From a womans point of view. But good info for everyone.

 

I dont know that mine's "on board". She is more like "standing on the dock, holding the boat, while I load it" haha

 

She knows vaguely what we have. She does know where it is and how to use it all. And we have discussed what we need, but she'll leave it to me to go get it.

Edited August 15, 2012 by Ready?4What?

[oregonchick 10]

Okay, that SurvivalMom blog is AWESOME. I only poked around on it for a couple of minutes, but it's definitely bookmark-worthy. She has free online classes, does challenges and giveaways, and it's all very adorably graphic and appealing. Great tip, Ready!

[Ready?4What? 10]

Thanks. When I got into prepping, I found it and looked it over. Then, a couple of years ago, my friend was trying to get his wife on-board. I recommended it to her. Not only did she get on board, she pushed him off the boat and took off without him! haha

 

Seeing this thread brought it back to the forefront of my memory and I have started looking it over again. LOTS of great info there! LOTS!!!

I'm gonna show this to my wife tonight and see if maybe it will excite her a little. I wasn't married to her at the time that I recommended it to others a few years ago.

[Mudbass7 10]

sweet! thanks im gonna check it out now

[juzcallmesnake 1,514]

I always kept prepping regardless of the opinion of anyone it took my significant other quite a while to find out

big safe LOL and my shop never interested her so I had been very well stocked needed compressors generators

and all kinds of hardware I have like to scrap parts from free equipment junk computers have great 12 volt fans

and inverters 120 ac to 5 & 12 vdc

never know what you will find and as most know today copper is expensive and if your a consummate

scrapper trader and buyer of od items people will seek you out and if you know your equipment

you can do very well.

 

after our first hurricane and 10 days without power my significant other was on board like a pro

understood completely we had ice water fans a window unit AC radio TV hot water and cool outdoor shower

our food never went bad

we had milk and salads while everyone else was scrambling for gas we has a barrel full and cases of oil

extra spark plugs and generator.

we wanted for nothing but in a longer term event more than 3 weeks we would be down to fans I

know I may could eek out 4 weeks but beyond that we would be on fans at night and still have plenty of food

water and medical for emergencies 6 months to a year lots of seeds and tools to keep occupied.

 

she's into it now and I think we are accumulating more all the time sometimes I get the evil eye but for the most part she takes it in stride just found an Atlas 150MM past maker for 5 bucks looked new considering

getting a ravioli maker so I can make and dry them or make them up and can them.

 

well it only takes one situation and weather it the man or woman now is the foot dragger they will get religion fast you don't have to tell them every thing you can buy a gun and ammo and keep it locked up in a safe place

keep some things in your attic or in an hard to find place inside just make sure they are a person that respects

ownership and not garage sale your stuff some are that way just got to know your partner.

[___ 11]

___

[Mudbass7 10]

Yeah and my girlfriend is the same way. She's not going to stop me, and frankly I'm not going to quit..

[stickhorse_24 10]

My wife was also a hard nut to crack. She didnt see the point, we had enough food to feed us a while...blah blah blah. In the end I showed her how we didnt have enough food to sustain us in any type of situation without electricity for more than a handful of days. So once she agreed I was right (what an awesome victory that was) I used her own shopping and deal hunting instincts/problem against her. She is now an avid couponer, almost extreme couponing worthy and we regularly hit up garage sales, flea markets and the Goodwills. We have enough food for at least a month, we garden a little, and have enough water stored for 2 weeks. Plans are in order to increase our preps as much as space will allow, secondary food and water sources have been identified (good hunting areas close by and fresh water streams, lakes and ponds) and a BOL is being researched.

 

I guess my point is find out her interests that can be related, even if only barely, to prepping and then slowly bring her into the fold. It took me 6 months of hard work before my wife actually started to get it. Good luck