May 14, 2015

The Dos and Don’ts of Preparing With Children

46 minutes

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Sometimes in any given household only one of the parents is concerned about preparedness, and most of the time the children in that household could care less, after all their idea of doomsday is losing a girlfriend or their cell phone breaking.

If we do this correctly we can at the very least increase awareness about preparedness without turning them off to the idea all together. This article is about teaching your children about preparedness, but some of the principals can be applied to your other family members as well.

We need to remember that each person, child or adult, has a different personality and will take a different approach when we discuss prepping. Some people learn better by reading from a book, and some people need to be hands. Some people are more analytical, and some people are more emotional. It’s up to us to figure out what the best teaching method is for each child.

The age of your children needs to also be taken into account. As Lisa and I talked about in the show, we got serious about prepping when our children were already teenagers, and while it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks, it is far more challenging than teaching them right in the first place.

I came up with 9 ideas that might help build your child’s (or children) awareness about preparedness, these might need to be changed here and there depending on your child’s needs, but the principals remain the same.

1. Teach Them to Respect the Essentials

Children these days have no idea about what life is like without technology, and they have no idea where food and water actually come from. If the internet goes out for just an hour they have no idea what to do, and when all the spaghettiO’s are gone they act like there is nothing in the house to eat.

Teach them about food and water, teach them about electricity. Teaching them not to take for granted that the lights just magically come on when you flip a switch, and the water might not always flow from the faucet will give them an appreciation for what they have.

2. Teach the Basics of Prepping

You hear the stories all the time, and it might even be you. “I’ve been a prepper my whole life, and didn’t know It.” Teaching your children about canning, gardening, food storage and self-reliance will teach them that it’s just what smart people do.

Camping and survivalist skills are also a great way to get the ball rolling. Teaching them the basics of fire, water safety, building shelter can introduce your children to the importance of preparing.

3. Get Them Involved in Prepping

Children are always trying to emulate their parents, this can be good or bad. If we teach our children good habits and give them a few small things that they are responsible for they will have a bigger sense of involvement.

Let them join in when you are cooking, gardening or building something. They might not actually be “helping” you, but the fact that they are involved gives them an idea about how the process works.

4. Watch What You (and They) Say

Be careful about labeling what you are doing as “prepping” to children, they love to brag and because they talk to others who might not understand what prepping is, it might lead to unwanted attention. We know what prepping is all about, but because of shows like Doomsday Preppers some people have misconceptions.

Also take the opportunity to teach them about operational security when you can. This is the same concept as “never take candy from a stranger”, we spend so much time thinking about security we need to make sure our children don’t give away the farm.

5. Let Small Children Build Their Own Emergency Bag (With Your Help)

Even if they build a bug out bag full of toys let them put what they want in the bag. Ask them why they decided they needed that and use this as an opportunity to teach them about emergency preparedness.

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