Salty’s Note: If you have children in your family or in your prepping group, then you already know that it is critically important both to prep for those kids… but so many youngsters today are “indoors” kids, and when they aren’t indoors playing with their phones and their XBoxes, they are probably at some adult-organized activity like a league ball game or practice. Becca is a mom and a prepper, and here are some of her thoughts about prepping and children, and the first part of this article is by her. I finish up with a few thoughts of my own.
What Prepper Children Need To Know
By Becca
We often talk about how prepping may not be for a “zombie apocalypse” but rather ordinary everyday events. I grew up on a farm, throwing hay bales, hauling feed sacks, helping with lambing in 20 degree below weather.
I have been sewing since I was about 5 and we grew and butchered most of our food. Summer and fall were spent picking blackberries and preserving all sorts of things. We fixed our own cars, built our own sheds, heated the house with firewood and made do.
To tell you the truth, I hated it. I mean I loved sewing and canning and stuff, but the work was hard and it wasn’t fun like my friends lives. There are other issues with my childhood that made it bad, but I am glad that I gained those basic skills. Other situations as an adult have given me even more strength and knowledge. I have a lot more to learn though.
Concerns
I’m very worried that many of these skills are dying out because we aren’t teaching our kids. Whether it’s hard times due to job loss or needing them because modern methods are no longer available, we need to keep these skills alive. It will make the difference between survival or death for many. This is one small list, but there are many skills that could be added to it, the “old” ways of doing things.
I’m shocked at the fact that most people under age 35 or so don’t know how to take a road trip using just a road atlas. Can’t sew on a button. Can’t read a recipe. I think a lot of people have a “tv idea” of how to start a fire, but it’s not as simple as throwing some sticks together and having a roaring fire in 20 seconds. They think they can do it based on what they’ve seen on tv but they’ve never practiced it. We practice it or we lose it altogether.
Graphic via FrugualFun4Boys click the picture to see their website.
Where I would start?
OK, this is Salty from here on out.
First, let me state up front that Spice and I don’t have children. That was an intentional choice, and I think it’s fair to throw this out there so you can use the information to evaluate whether my thoughts on what children need to know hold water.
I’m also going to put a caveat on my list here, because I’m not mentioning religion or anything political. Those things are ENTIRELY up to the parent to decide what is appropriate for their own kids.
Salty’s List
OK, with my disclaimers out of the way, here are my list of skills I think every child should be taught and/or information they should know.
- Every prepper kid needs to know how to keep a secret. This may be the most important thing we can get them trained on, because we don’t want the whole neighborhood showing up on our doorstep if the STHF after Little Johnny has told everybody about what’s in the basement.
- They need to know how to live indefinitely without a telephone or instant communication of any kind other than face-to-face. This may sound silly, but take away all avenues of conversation that don’t involve being in the same room, and many children and young adults become non-functional.
- We need them to know how to filter water so that it is safe to drink, and carry a water filter in their backpack whenever they go anywhere. They need to understand how untreated water can make them sick, and they need to learn to keep their eyes open for sources of water as they travel.
- Every prepper kid (and every prepper for that matter) needs to be vigilant at looking both ways before crossing a street. Heck, adults need to learn this. I don’t know how many times over the last winter I’ve had somebody just walk right out in front of my car crossing the road without even looking.
- They need to know how to safely build a fire, how to put out a fire, and how to operate fire-suppression devices like fire extinguishers.
- Every kid should know how to swim.
- They also need to know how to make change without a calculator or cash register, and understand basic values of items. We need to teach them that how much work is required to earn each dollar, and how many minutes or hours of work an item is worth. Example, they make $10 an hour at their after-school job, so it takes 4 hours of work to buy that new game they want.
- While we don’t want to turn our children into people with Mysophobia (phobic fear of germs), we need the children to know good germ habits… how to properly wash their hands, how to avoid running their hands all over high-traffic filled places and then touching their faces, etc. There’s a reason that when a bug hits a school, half the children end up getting sick from it sooner or later.
There are many more things I could mention
I’m not trying to put out an all-inclusive list here, but rather my goal (and Becca’s goal if I may speak for her) is to create a conversation starter… to get people thinking about the prepping aspects of children.
Please feel free to share any thoughts you have in the comments below!
As an involved Uncle to many children over my lifetime. The most important thing I teach my kids is look at their eyes. A fake smile doesn’t reach the eyes except for pure sociopaths. Situational awareness don’t get cornered, have trusted friends always around. Sociopaths and other users isolate their victims. I teach them how to make small talk as not to spill all family secretes to anybody nearby. Teach them to be ok with silence as it allows you to learn others deeper thoughts. As a prepper with several prepper family friends until they know how to keep a secrete you hide the most important preps from them.
That and given the rash of “Red Flag” laws were an anonymous person can report being threatened by your weapons/attitude/etc. Have a 40 gallon screw top olive barrel of start over supplies and tools away from easy discovery by a SWAT team. Nothing in my house is worth losing my beloved family over.
Great, great, great topic!
Little Mermaid is now four and attends a daycare. I have worked to make sure she knows how to get home and get inside. By that, I mean we have walked back and forth to daycare together because the road route and walking route are different. Also, I wanted to make sure I am comfortable with her crossing a major street where vehicles frequently travel in excess of 50 mph.
On a positive note, she knows how to get food out of the pantry and fridge. On a negative note, she knows how to get food out of the pantry and fridge at will when I am asleep, and her food choices lean to junk food. At least I know she will have food until I get home if something should happen.
I don’t believe my daughter understands time yet. I am trying to teach her that concept to give her an understanding of how long she needs to stay at the house before she ever considers leaving it or worrying about me. I want to teach her the concept because I hypothesized a situation where it could take me two days to get home and I wanted her to know that was still okay and well within normal parameters. Daddy’s coming home…don’t panic and don’t leave the house. I am really surprised that the concept of time appears to be quite vague at her age. This is a challenge.
It will get easy as she develops. It Is surprising what concepts they can and can’t grasp at particular ages, no matter how bright they are. She can probably count a little though, so perhaps phrasing it in terms of “sleep, play, sleep”?
Another thing kids need is to understand the word “stop” or something like The Magic Word you wrote about recently. Little Mermaid is going through a phase where has stopped minding. The word “stop” is meaningless to her and is becoming synonymous with “time-out”. Someday she will learn, though.
In our family at least, it worked if one version of ‘stop’ was kept separate from normal life. “Freeze” was never used as a synonym for ‘stop’ except in emergencies. Since it was understood to be an urgent thing rather than just another parent command, we heeded it quite well.