Team Work

All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest--never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.
-Ann Landers, “Says Truth Is Stranger...”, 1968

I’m fortunate that my wife shares a passion for preparedness. She was very involved during Y2K in purchasing a wheat grinder, water filters, and building up our food store. She learned to make bread from scratch and has been trying to grow a vegetable garden.

However not all homes are so like-minded. I enjoyed reading the story, A Prepper Husband and a Stubborn Wife, at SurvivalBlog.com. The husband, a Marine, wants to prepare. His wife is not interested. So he tries to prepare stealthily by encouraging family campouts, a vegetable garden, and so on. But the plan backfires when his wife finds his secret preparedness check-off list. As he puts it, “I won't go into detail about how terrible that night was when I got home, but it's safe to say that my plans for being ready were placed on hold.”

Fortunately the story has a happy ending. The wife’s eyes are later opened to the risks of modern society and she agrees to prepare. In Part 4 of the story, JRM describes the actions they take together like trimming the budget, establishing action plans (SOP or Standard Operation Procedures) for different emergencies, organizing supplies, and mapping out evacuation routes and evacuation destinations. JRM states, “I feel that at this stage we would be ahead of the hordes of people trying to evacuate the east coast.”

Bottom Line

The author concludes with this advice:

• You have work as a team with your spouse
• You have to prepare spiritually to stay motivated
• Avoid becoming overwhelmed by doing a little something every single day to prepare
• Find like minded friends or a preparedness support group.
• You have to have a plan (but expect it to fail).
  “It is easier to adjust a plan or fall back on a contingency than it is to shoot from the hip.”