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There you are setting there at the table thinking to yourself, why doesn’t she understand? Why does she not want to even talk about it? What am I going to do? What about our kids?
If you have ever been in this situation, you know very well how hard it can be to overcome this. For those who are just discovering this months after the honeymoon phase has worn off, it is possible!
Getting a reluctant Spouse on board with Pepping can be challenging, it can seem like the day will never come. Now I’m not the best with relationship advice, but I do know a thing or two.
When we think of spouses not wanting anything to do with prepping, we automatically assume that it is the wife not wanting it. But more often then not, now days it seems to be the other way around.
There is always arguments about money. If you and your spouse don’t argue about money, that is like a finding a unicorn.
There are many other reasons why people don’t want to prep.
- Not enough time!
- Not enough money!
- I don’t even see a point to it!
- Will you just stop talking about it!
- The Social Stigma.
- Lack of space.
Not enough time
For most couples, kids or not, time can at times be non existent as far as spending quality time together. Between work and social life or kids if you have them, there just never seems to be enough hours in the day.
But when we are talking about preparedness people generally think that it takes a lot of time to do, so when a spouse says that we don’t have enough time together as it is, why would I want to do that? Explain to them this:
“It really isn’t as time consuming as you think, in fact with a lot of it we will be able to do things together.”
There are things that can in fact take up a lot of time, but it isn’t likely that you will be doing these things every week.
Explain to them that we can set aside a certain time frame to do things like skills training, food storage, emergency evacuation procedures and many more.
You never want to start off with trying something new with your spouse that they already dislike, that is going to take all day to do. Start off with something simple like going over fire or tornado procedures. Make sure everyone knows where to go.
Doing small things like these to start off with might just help get your spouse on board!
Not enough Money!
Like I had mentioned before money can be a very difficult topic for many couples. This is one of the biggest reasons for divorce. But it doesn’t have to be with you and yours.
When your spouse always comes back with “We don’t have enough money to waste of junk that will just set around for god knows how long!” every time you mention anything to do with preparedness, it can be very disheartening. But you know that deep down, it is very important.
So what do you do? Charge everything to the credit card and talk it out when the bill comes? Do not do this! This could in fact be very detrimental to the relationship. Instead, start off explaining why it is important to you.
Let them know why it is so important! Help them see the importance of it. Show them that it isn’t just a waste of money.
Ask them to watch American Blackout with you or other movies that you think would change their mind.
If they still are reluctant then talk about setting a small monthly budget. $25 a month doesn’t sound like much but it can add up.
You don’t have to go out and spend all your money. Do it a little here and there.
I don’t even see a point to it!
“It is just so stupid!”, “I don’t even see a point to it!”
I’m sure this will come up, if it hasn’t already. This can be a tough time, they are already irritated because they just don’t get it. This is understandable because I mean hell, we live in the USA. But even then things can go wrong.
Try to explain to them that yes, even though we do live in a wonderful luxury compared to the rest of the world, you never know when things like a major CME will happen and take out the power.
Prepping isn’t just stocking up on guns and ammo, although that is nice, there are more aspects to it.
I highly doubt you can convince them that a Zombie apocalypse is just around the corner, but a lot of other things could go wrong.
A job loss, a medical emergency, a major storm, and a vehicle breakdown are just a few to name off.
Job’s are not a guarantee, you could, God forbid, go into work in the morning and the door’s would be closed. What would you do then?
You could be laid up in a hospital because some prick was texting and driving and now you have all these medical bills piling up and you’re not working so that is getting you further into debt. How are you going to pay for food or bills?
A major hurricane or tornado outbreak came through and destroyed your house, what will you do if you don’t have the money put back for the insurance deductible? Where will you go if you don’t have money put back for fuel and a hotel?
You’re going on a cross country trip with your family and the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Explaining to your spouse “See, you should have let me put non perishable food and bottles of water in the trunk!” “I told you that we can’t always rely on fast food joints” is not going to help resolve the current issue.
But if you explain these things to them beforehand and get them to better understand why it is important today, then things will be a lot easier on you and everyone else in the future.
Will you just stop talking about it!
So at this point, your spouse is already ticked! You have tried your best to try and explain to them that it is important to you and your family, but they just want nothing to do with it.
What do you do? Well the best thing to do, is end the discussion. Let things cool off and then in a few days or weeks try it again.
But you should ask them why they don’t want to talk about it. What is the issue. Without knowing the true problem, then you will never be able to convince them.
Once you find out what the problem is, then you can find out how to better explain things to them the next time you talk about it. Don’t keep pestering them. This will only make things worse in the relationship.
The Social Stigma.
“I’m not one of them crazy Doomsday Preppers that you see on TV!“
There have been a lot of things that show preppers as crazy nut jobs and in turn it has became sort of a demeaning term.
Sure there are a lot of nuts out there, but that isn’t everyone.
The Social stigma of prepping in my opinion was put out from the guberment… but that is a topic for another time.
Explain to them that not everything you see or hear is true, they love hearing that haha.
Try to show them that there are thousands of different small things that you can do that that isn’t crazy.
Don’t say “Hey, I ordered some surface to air missiles on the Black Market“
Folks back in the Dust Bowl day’s weren’t calling themselves preppers, they were just surviving!
Lack of space.
I myself have come into this issue when we lived in the apartment. It was hard to find places to put things that weren’t in the way. Sure you could get a storage unit, but you would have to weigh that option out yourself.
You have a lot of space underneath bed frames or in closets. You could get small tubs to better keep things organized with, but each scenario is different, you’ll have to figure out which way works best for you.
When they say stop buying stuff because we have no where to put it, take that into consideration. Try and figure out weather or not you would be able to store it out of the way.
Prepping in an Apartment can be quite the challenge but it can also be rewarding.
I sure hope this article has helped you and your significant other, if you have any question’s be sure to leave a comment down below!