Reader Question on Survival Prepping (without Family Support)

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received an the following comment on the post – The Urban Threat – Why the Need for Urban Survival Prep”: “ I am SO overwhelmed right now. It is sad because I come from a family of people who have always been somewhat prepared and interested so I'm not completely new to the concept but I've spent my time being lost in depression and complacency. Hoping that things will just 'be okay' as I fought stupid battles with my ex husband and tried to keep my head above water.

Now, it feels too late. I have joint custody with my ex husband. If two of my four kids are with him when it comes down to hunkering down, bugging out or whatever is on the menu, I won't be able to leave them. He has never cooperated with me on anything, choosing instead to use any moment to extract often oddball methods of revenge...meaning, I can't trust him. My oldest daughter is off living with her bf. I love her but she is a huge flake and cannot be counted on not to talk too much. Do I prepare for her just in case? My stupid dogs bark at everything and I even have a rooster that crows literally all hours of the night and day although the night thing has tapered off since I told my mil that she absolutely had to turn off her bedroom light at night instead of leaving it on all hours...her light faces the coop and was confusing the rooster.


Don't even get me started on my mil. There is absolutely NO WAY I can even begin to afford to prepare for her in a hunker down situation and when bug out becomes the game, I could not take her. My parents live behind me, they are both in their early 70's but are tough as nails, country folk, armed and proficient.


My husband is not nearly as serious as I am so it feels as if I carry this alone but I realize it isn't quit that way. He has a daughter, ex wife and her two little boys that he would want to get to. They live a long enough distance that it seriously bothers me as they are NOT the kind you can talk to about this stuff ahead of time, so no preparation on their part, no monetary aid in making food preparations etc and then having to either wait on them or go get them which reduces the efficiency of my planning and my family's strength. Plus again, their health needs run insulin dependent diabetes and morbid obesity? WTH am I supposed to do with stuff like this? How do I pick a place to try to go to? Oh, did I mention that I have very little money to work with? It's a tiny piece at a time and I hope to god I'm not too late. –Lost at the End (Stephanie)

UrbanMan replies: Stephanie, I am going to use a post format to reply to you as used the comment box rather than the e-mail function to contact me. A lot of us can see ourselves in your comment. In fact when I read your comment the first time I saw a friend of mine in my mind’s eye who also had a divorce type scenario with three children. His ex-wife was a pain for him in keeping the kids for a weekend and told everyone that my friend was crazy, trying to ruin his rep around town. When these kid’s were in their early teens, he constantly stressed to them that his house was the safe haven, from all threats. He wanted them to have a pre-programmed response to get to his house if anything happened. He exposed them to firearms and shooting, and they were trustworthy enough to know where he kept the guns and could get to them if necessary.

My friend also exposed his kids to his survival food supply which, back then, mainly consisted of cases of canned soups, and dried pasta, rice, beans. His Bug Out plan was to get his family to his new wife’s boss’ farmhouse about 4 miles outside of town….where a well, pond and above ground swimming pool existed,……you gotta have water! The kid’s were brought to the farm several times, knew the route to it, and told this was the backup place to go. My friend’s kids are now beginning college and one is in the last year of high school, which is a lot of my friends back, but do parents ever really stop worrying about their children? I took all this as building trust between him and his kids and developing a response to come to him in an emergency.

A little note on diabetes: Adult on-set or Type II diabetes is controllable through nutrition…until you get to the point at your pancreas does not produce any insulin. Insulin dependent diabetes, even type II,……well, sucks because you have to have diabetes. In a post collapse world where a lack of processed foods and sugar, the diabetes rates will plummet, as will obesity. The novel, “One Second After”, by William Forstchen has a character with insulin dependent diabetes. This is a good book to read as it clearly displays the consequences of no survival planning.

Really the only things you can do is to continue dripping the necessity of survival (or disaster) prepping. My wife, who was initially put off and scared that I was a loon, is now much better about it. I think you can also continue to prep, whatever your budget allows. I would just continue on. That’s what I do. When I reached my goal of stocked food for six months, then my goal shifted to nine months and so on. Also ensure you cover all necessities. The list is endless so the objective is to get better across the board, incrementally as you can.

I would assume you are in charge of the house. If your current husband gives you any grief over prepping then give him the LOOK,….you know,…..that LOOK women give men to get them to back off. Good luck.