Unwilling/Unprepared family members

How would you all handle unwilling or unprepared family members? I'm not talking extended family. I'm talking about immediate family!

How many of you are making preparations with or without unwilling spouses/partners/significant others? Do you get ridiculed, badgered, harassed?

Its taken me quite a while to get my husband in on the buy two put one back idea. It took years to get him to quit giving away or selling items I thought we should hang onto, like the coleman camper stove, or spare propane camping size tanks. Its still taking a while to convince him that one at a time we should have filled all of the spare propane tanks even if we don't need them (right now).

My son and his wife are totally unprepared. They keep no more than a few days worth of food in the house and have no emergency items of any kind! He will not listen when I tell him he should at the very least be prepared for an extended power outage. He lives in WV and is subject to severe winters and frequent power outages. Nothing I've said to him seems to sink in.

How do any/all of you handle this issue?

I've got the same problem. I don't know what to do. I can't keep bringing it up, because the more I do, the less likely they are to believe me. They already think I'm just some crazy conspiricist and whatever I do/think I'm only doing so to go against the government. Help?

reply to post by SeenMyShare


Do you get ridiculed, badgered, harassed and loved by some, SO ITS A FAIR EXCHANGE ATLEAST SOME ARE REACHED..

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

What I've wound up doing is preparing for them all with or without their assistance. I've put away food enough for all of my immediate family because I know my son hasn't. I've put away survival gear without my husbands assistance or approval. Little by little I'm getting through to him, with the help of non MSM news and some MSM news. I just carefully approach subjects. We had an extended power outage a few years ago and that convinced him to be prepared to do without power for a time. After the Gulf disaster he was convinced that an emergency might require us to evacuate - we now prepare for that. Economy: he watches the news and understands things are bad. He now allows me to set food back (lots of it!). He actually helped with this year's garden. I haven't convinced him yet to increase the supply of ammo for our guns... but I'm working on that without his approval. Not my first choice but a "lie" I can live with.

My son is a different story. He has the "superman" syndrome, so I prepare for him, his wife and my granddaughter silently. Its here if/when it comes to that.

reply to post by SeenMyShare


Very thoughtful and shows signs of STO INSTEAD OF STS within your spirit. Me I just let them all know First "Ok since you prefer sick visual gimmicks then your wishes shall be granted, smh" and that Second "WAIT FOR THE SECOND INVASION" because the first may be mindtrick for the weak". I love all and cannot tamper their wills but I do try to open their eyes a little with pliars. good question OP.

I've found the best way to turn people like that is to bring up real disasters like hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, and utility failures like water and electrical disruptions.

Some are more frequent than others is different areas but nobody is immune. Here at least seems like once a year some ice storm or wash out or blizzard knocks out a section of the state completely for a week or more so not being prepared here is pretty darn stupid.

Other places go years without much trouble. Makes people complacent.

There's nonreason not to be prepared but a million reasons to be ranging from not having to go out in bad weather to being mauled to death by zombies.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
reply to post by SeenMyShare

 

STO INSTEAD OF STS

edit on 10/13/10 by Ophiuchus 13 because: (no reason given)

Off topic, but may I ask what STO and STS stand for?

Back on topic, I prepare for them because THEY are my reason for wanting to go on. They are the reason I could live under a tree in the pouring rain with a pack on my back eating acorns! Without them.. I don't want to simply survive.

Ask them to review world history, civilizations and cultures are doomed to reset forever. Thats why we dont believe in mythology anymore, thats why we dont wear spartan armor. Society and culture will always reset, and in the process when something resets you lose access to a lot of things you used to have. Maybe just review past societies and they're inevitable failure.
Nothing lasts forever...

reply to post by SeenMyShare


Service to others
Service to self

Start off, by trying to convince your SO to being prepared for an extended power outage. You should have x amount of food, water, candles etc.

Then you start buying things that are on sale. Tomato sauce was on sale so I bought a case. Just keep doing that. Pretty soon, you have lots of food stored and even some supplies that you could use during your extended power outage.

Rather than trying to change his paradigm, just make little changes to how you approach life and include him. Provide explanations that don't shake his world, like buying food by the case because you save so much money.

That's how I approached it and our house has lots and lots of stored goods.

I'm in the same boat, everyone gets their news from the MSM so they don't know the REAL extent of the world / USA problems. They think I'm crazy preparing for TEOTWAWKI..I've tried to educate them but it goes in one ear out the other, so I just prepare by myself and try to include enough to take care of them also.. What more can you do, they can't be made to understand what is really going on in the world, they are content to go through life as usual as long as their little world isn't disturbed they don't care.

I will just leave them as my family members are not my loved ones, but parasitic idiots.

reply to post by SeenMyShare


Did your husband make you feel like you
had a mental disorder for buying all this stuff?
Did your husband allow strangers to look inside
your secret pantry?
I have spent a lot of time and money buying all
of this stuff.I have had to go behind my husband's
back in order to get it.
Now,there are strangers who know some of what
I have in storage.

reply to post by mamabeth

In the beginning, yes, he made me feel stupid. Now he is starting to come around.

Wow, that would really get my goat! Find a new hiding place! ASAP

reply to post by SeenMyShare


He is SLOWLY starting to come around.
I don't have any place else to put it all.
Most of it will be 'gone' in a couple of trips
to my son's place anyhow.
I also tried tithing on my purchases as well.
I would buy a bunch of can goods and donate
10% to our churches food pantry.

reply to post by peterpansgirl


If you not married, pick someone who shares your concerns. It’s very difficult to enlighten the ignorant.

The nice thing about being in Florida, is that I can "disguise" it as Hurricane preparedness. Sure, it seems as if I'm going overboard, and I joke about the imminent Zombie uprising, but at least this excuse can work most of the time.

at the onset of resistance towards any preparation i would keep my mouth shut and carry on regardless. to bring the issue up with family who are not interested or full of ridicule only confirms that they are fearful of any life changes. it seems unthinkable to some to suffer privations and hunger. if things do go down be prepared to become the magnet!
fakedirt

Thanks everyone for your input. While it would be so much easier with a willing partner I have done as most of you have - used actual disasters, power outages, floods, fires and such to quietly increase stores and implement alternative plans. When presenting the subject I never ever call it the SHTF/TEOTWAWKI/SURVIVAL plan. Simply our emergency preparedness plans. We do happen to be a wee bit more prepared than my family know, though .

In the end, it's your own @$$.
My wife filled the bathtubs with water for "y2K" even though I had disproved the main reasons for it many months before.
It made her feel better, and I only had to put up with showers for a couple days.

What does being "prepared" actually cost?
There are storms, power outages, disasters, everywhere. How about just calling them "camping supplies---on sale"?

On the food end, you never lose on store-ables.

Being prepared is a fact of modern Amerikan life, and if a partner doesn't agree with it, you must press the issue or find another, or submit.


Read my siggi.