Merry Christmas! Plus, Why My Family Drives Me Nuts as a Prepper

First, Merry Christmas to you and yours. I truly hope you are doing well and that your family is well too. The older I get the more important my time has become to me, especially those moments with family that are difficult to come by as my kids age, health problems arise, and people move away.

Second, I’m thinking of winding my postings down for the rest of the year, but I haven’t decided yet. So, if you don’t see anything until January, that’s why.

Now, onto my thoughts.

I sometimes wonder why I spend so much time and effort on my preparedness when, if I’m being perfectly honest, it doesn’t feel like anyone is listening. Granted, I know YOU are, and I know people read my blog and books, but to the people who really matter to me more than anything (not that you don’t of course) especially family, and to a lesser extent friends, it feels nobody gives a damn.

I’ve been prepping for over twenty years now. And I’ve had a blog for sixteen years. Everybody in the family and many friends know I’m a “prepper.” Many have joked, though it’s certainly not a joke, that “they’re coming to my house when SHTF.” Once upon a time I would’ve said no. These days, I might not mind.

The problem is that I feel like my words fall on deaf ears regularly. For instance, my wife and I went to visit my eldest son in Washington state for a week this December. It was a nice visit, and I can see that he’s doing some things to prepare himself, but he’s still missing so much that he could make use of should something happen. He needs a lot more food in the house, not to mention a ton of other supplies, and then there’s living near hundreds of other highly unprepared people in a massive apartment complex. But he’s a young man living a bachelor lifestyle. I get it.

Sadly, there’s almost nothing I could do for him since he’s about 2000 miles away by car. He is entirely on his own, which worries me. There is no guarantee that he could get back here should he truly need to, so the best I can do is to remind him that he doesn’t have to spend thousands of dollars on cars and hundreds on entertainment. Maybe, just maybe, spend a few dollars on stuff he actually needs.

My wife, love her as I do, still rarely fills her car when it gets to half a tank like I request. Granted, she’s busy and probably hopes I’ll take the car and fill it up for her on the weekends. In fact, I’m pretty sure my in-laws (who live with us) do the same, lol. Anyway, my wife usually apologizes in the way she does, but I remind her that “stuff happens” and that the wintertime is no time to run out of gas. Decades of reminders still haven’t sunk in; perhaps life will have to teach her this lesson.

On a related note, my eldest son had to work a few days while we were visiting. Long story short, he had to drive hours longer than normal to get back home due to an accident on a bridge. Although I never said anything to him, I hope he realized that this is a good reason to (1) have plenty of gas at all times and (2) have a phone charger in the car.

Another example: the day we got back, my youngest son (who is now 20 years old) went ice skating with his girlfriend. He said it was horribly cold and that he may have regretted how he dressed. It was rather cold that day, but I assume that because he enjoys testing his limits, he choose to not bring gloves and other amenities to keep warm. And for him to say he was cold is saying something because he practices the Wim Hoff method, which attempts to acclimate the body to cold weather for health benefits. I think he’s just doing more young man stuff, but speaking as an old man, even cold showers are highly unpleasant, so I can imagine ice skating in weather well below freezing was much worse!

Anyway, I didn’t say anything to him either. But I went and checked the front closet out of curiosity. Do you know how many pairs of gloves I have in there? Four good ones, like Carhartt, specifically for cold outdoor weather. And I’ve got at least a few others that are like driving gloves which are not well-insulated but better than nothing. There are multiple stocking caps, two ski masks (balaclavas), several warm jackets of various sizes, scarves, boots, and probably other crap I couldn’t see because there’s so much in there. So, it’s not like gloves weren’t readily accessible.

And that’s to say nothing of my in-laws who live with us. They are wonderful people and have the biggest hearts, but they’re the worst of the bunch. I won’t throw them under the bus with specifics, but I honestly have no idea how they survived life without me all these years. They’re only getting worse as they age. 🙂

And this is my point. I love my family dearly. But, c’mon people! What are we doing here? None of this is rocket science! Plus, you live with somebody who does this shit for a living!

Truth be told, the most prepared person in the family is probably my mother. She’s got her act together most of the time, which makes me proud. Although, now that I think about things, it’s highly likely that I got my preparedness tendencies from her, so I guess I make her proud?

Anyway, enough venting. Though I’m sure there are a dozen more examples from this year alone if I only stop to think about it.

But here’s the thing: people either “get it” or they don’t. There’s just no explaining things and expecting others to do something. That’s just not the way people are wired. I’ve tried for years, decades even; I’ve basically given up.

I’m just going to do my thing and if it helps those I care about, then great!

Ultimately, people have to make their own choices and if those choices turn out to hurt, then lesson learned, I guess.

And that’s where it hurts me just a little. I do so much, at least I think I do, that for those I care about most to be hurt when it’s so easy to make a different choice is rough.

Let’s hope and pray that your family listens better than mine.

Have a Happy New Year!