Emergency preparedness 101: How to encourage a hesitant partner to start prepping

One of the biggest preparedness challenges you may encounter is convincing your partner or spouse to join you in your preps. Your partner will probably react with hesitance. They might even think that you’re crazy for believing that a disaster is waiting right around every corner. If you want to convince someone that it isn’t far-fetched to prepare for emergencies, here are some of the things you can do to encourage him or her to join you.

Set aside a part of your budget for prepping

When you and your partner or spouse start talking about your budget for each month, set aside a small portion of it for emergencies. This should be innocuous enough not to raise any objections. After a while of putting away several tens or hundreds of dollars every month, you should start talking to your partner about using some of this money to purchase emergency supplies, such as food, water and other survival gear.

If your partner needs some more convincing, talk about the practical benefits of buying emergency supplies. Talk about wanting your pantry to be a little bit more stocked, or talk about how some of your old tools are close to breaking and how you want to have the right tools when you need them. Encouraging them to start with something as simple as having enough food in your storeroom or having a replacement tool ready and waiting is a great way to ease them into prepping.

Talk about the likelihood of certain disasters and emergencies

Talk to your partner about being ready for natural and man-made disasters. If you’ve gone through a disaster yourself, relay your experiences to him or her and talk about what you believe you could have done differently had you been better prepared.

Explain to your partner that preparing for the possibility of a disaster is no different from purchasing health, car or life insurance. Prepping is your family’s insurance policy against future SHTF scenarios.

If your partner is still reluctant to try prepping, try talking to him or her about some of the reasons why this should concern your family. For example, if you have children, talk to your partner about the need to prep to ensure that your kids don’t suffer the consequences of being unprepared. (Related: Prepping with kids: What to teach them about natural disasters.)

Have fun learning survival skills together

One of the best ways to get your partner to prep with you is to get them to join you in learning a new “hobby.”

Schedule a hike together where you and your partner can spend quality time together. While on the hike, take out your field guide and learn to spot edible plants. Learn how to set up a tent and try your hand at fishing or hunting game while you’re there.

Head over to a strawberry farm together and learn how to make jam. Help out your son who’s in the Boy Scouts learn how to make fires, tie knots and read signal flags.

There are so many other ways you can get your partner to be as interested as you are about prepping. The most important thing you need to learn is that you need to be open about your concerns and be able to express them in a manner with which your partner can empathize with. If your partner or spouse truly understood how important it is for you not to be caught unprepared for disasters, they should have no problem supporting you and helping you out.

Sources include:

BackdoorSurvival.com

Blog.SurvivalFrog.com

OffGridSurvival.com