How To Get Your Partner Involved

So your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, or so on doesn't understand what your doing? They think that your paranoid for no reason. We understand and I believe its pretty common to any survivalist. Let's go ahead and chalk it up to our present day society. Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor, or any of the other pointless reality shows seem to be whats "important" to our culture today. Not to mention the disposable nature of our civilization has embraced. Things break and we go buy new ones instead of repairing them or lets use paper plates because there's no clean-up afterwards. I remember growing up and my Dad would go to great lengths to repair stuff around the house. He didn't call the repair guy or just go buy a new one- he fixed it.

Survival may seem mysterious to some today, but 200 years ago many of the "survival" skills were a way of life. "Self-Reliance" 50 years ago was something that saved cash from those without disposable incomes. A few years back, Hurricane Katrina destroyed all in its path. Leaving those without any sort of skill or level of preparedness to face some nasty stuff and took the lives of many.

If your reading this more than likely you know the above statements to be true. So how do we relay this mindset to our loved ones and how do we get them to start taking self-reliance seriously?

I grew up in the country with this mindset instilled in me inadvertently. You see, people from my part of the country are generally fairly self-reliant. Its our culture. My wife on the other hand- total opposite. She grew up in the north living in the Burb's. She had not been introduced to the outdoors like I have. When we were dating she would ask me questions like "Why do you need so many knives?" or "Whats the point of storing all this food?". I'm quite sure she questioned my sanity.

Now shes much more understanding. The first time I believe it clicked was when a Hurricane was coming through our area. Things got pretty nasty but I was prepared for it. Getting her to understand that I'm not doing this for the "Zombie Apocalypse  or "Because the worlds coming to an end". Lets be honest, that sounds crazy. Forget the fantasies, there have yet to be Zombies and I don't foresee it happening any time soon (ever).

So how do we get them to understand:

• Start bringing up natural disasters you see on the news. Comment about how the ones affected could have been better prepared for it. 
• Watch the news nightly and discuss the number of break-in's/robberies in your area. This will lead to weapons training, range time, and concealed weapons permit.
• Once you get the above covered, they should understand the importance of stocking ammo because it has been in short supply. Or the fact that your sending so many rounds down range that it seems sensible to buy a box or two when you go to Wal-mart. 
• If you can't have weapons because of the country you live in, send them to get some self-defense training because "you care about their safety".
• Get outdoors. Wilderness skills will come to light very quickly 
• Getting outdoors will also lead to the need to purchase certain gear like sleeping bags and other gear
• Get them involved by buying a cute knife as pictured above (if its a wife or girlfriend, dudes may not like a pink knife). That my wife's first survival knife. She was excited to "play with it", like sparking the ferro rod. She now carries it as her EDC. Even though she has no idea what EDC means. 
• Build a small Personal Survival Kit for them and go over the contents and how to use them. 
• Start a garden in the backyard. "because it will save money when grocery shopping".
• Intro to food prep. Throw a extra can of food in the buggy every week. Chalk it up as you want a variety in the pantry to choose from. 
• Join your local CERP together and get involved. 
• Print this Homeland Security "Build a Kit" checklist off and leave it on the kitchen table-http://www.ready.gov/build-a-kit

Hope this info helps you to get your partner involved and instill the self-reliant mindset in them. If you guys have any other suggestions, drop them in the comment box below.

Here are a few more items for the ladies: