Telling the other half you're a prepper

[Britcit]

I'm sure that many of you have had the conversation with your significant others about being a prepper.

I haven't broached the subject until recently. Knowing that getting my wife on board would be a positive step, I was waiting for the right moment. This came last week with a 12 hour power cut.

Seizing the moment, I told her that I am a member of this forum, and went on to discuss what I prep for. She originally though you were all 'crazy end-of-the-world doomsayers'. Whilst some of us here may be just that , I pointed out that prepping is not just for teotwawki, but is also for more likely scenarios.

I think she understood, so I can now GENTLY bring her more on board and involve her. Also, I don't need to keep hiding the food stash. That was starting to get difficult

Result

[whenfires]

Not a chance for me I'm afraid. Anytime I have even approached the subject, she has looked at me like I'm from another planet and the conversation has stopped dead. Even the subject of keeping more food in in case of bad weather or something equally simple gets me a "the shop is only down the road" or "the shops are only closed for two days a year, so what's the problem?"

So, I prep in secret and can't see that changing until the preps actually get used. Then of course, I will probably get it in the neck for doing all this behind her back

Still love her to bits mind ...

[Deeps]

I've always been a bit of an oddball about this even before I'd even heard of prepping so when I realised I was I started to get better organised about it and told my missus who thought I was absolutely nuts. A bit of of a discussion about the whys etc and explaining it was sod all to do with zombies and it was something that I was working towards as opposed to going out and spending several thousand quid helped put her mind at ease. She still doesn't really get it although she accepts that its what 'we' do now and does have ideas and suggestions of her own. There are aspects that she really likes though like we rarely run out of anything and we always have money in the house. She's got zero interest in some aspects of prepping though and that's fair enough. She's even very discreet about it which I'm grateful for.

[jaffab]

Same for me. She knows I have plans including a food box- but not any details. We were watching the news a few weeks ago, and she made a comment about "its all going to s**t, what are we going to do" and I said I had it sorted. I said I had plans, including some backup food, and asked if she wanted the details, but she said "no" and left it to that.

My view is that prepping is basically going back to caveman times. Me man, Ug, me protect family. I am sure there are lots of capable and happy woman preppers in the UK and all over the world, but the men outnumber them many fold.

My wife likes to feel safe, and knowing she is safe makes her happy. I will only have to dig it out and tell her of the plans in the very unlikely event that the SHTF.

[izzy_mack]

the rest of my family are not really interested, my oh puts up with the boxes etc as I pointed out how much money I saved. Every so often i comment on how much a tin of food cost when shopping today and what I paid for the 12 in the store which were bought on special offer and before the price hikes of recent weeks. He was impressed with that.

I do now hide things , as mum could always come up with the kind of tape you wanted or batteries or glue or.. So no one else bothered . Then when mum didn't have what they needed in store they had to think for themselves and things have improved. What they don't know is that I had the tape or whatever all along and I don't intend to tell them. sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind They may not be preppers but at least they now will buy stuff when they see it just in case . result.

[Plymtom]

Lucky here really we're from an age where having full cupboards was sensible and power cuts and the like happened so we have always been near enough on the same page.
Although looking back I may have manipulated the situation slightly where things which go bang, twang, and phut are concerned along with the more bush crafty/pointy type stuff

[gamekeeper752]

Luckily my other half knew all about me as i already had a reputation to being the one to see at work if something was needed, to get a boy scout out of a horses hoof, or to put the door lock back on or whatever.

Once we got together She totally embraced the hunting shooting fishing lifestyle and as a proud teacher, She and my boy are the winner in any competition we may have.WELL SOMETIMES.

She likes to do preserves and chutneys and weaves and does needlework, She likes camping hill-walking and even carries her own rucksac.

overall I think She just needed the opportunity to do this. as do many.

[Jamesey1981]

My Mrs takes the mickey out of me a bit, but even if she does think I'm a bit weird that doesn't mean she has a problem with what I get up to, she doesn't know quite what or how much of anything I have stored, not sure she'd be on board with the amount of buckshot cartridges that I have for example, but she's very happy that we rarely run out of anything, and the fact that when most of the usual day to day crises happen I either have the tools or materials to sort them out counts for a fair bit too.

[jansman]

I guess I am a lucky fella.My Wife and I were both born,bred and still live in the same country village,although we are not as rural as we were.Right pair of yokels us!

Her parents and mine always kept fowls,rabbits and kitchen gardens.Its what everyone did.We still do.Both our dads were skilled at ...it seemed everything! And mums too.Those skills were passed on,and I am a pretty good Brickie and welder...for a butcher! My wife is a damned good seamstress thanks to her mum.Ever seen a gun case made from an old leather coat,reclaimed zip and an army webbing strap? In an hour!

So when we got wed all those years ago,stocking up was normal.It wasn't until I read a book about food storage ( American) purely by chance,that I followed it up with a look on the new interweb thingy we had just got for our ( then) 10 year old daughter to do her homework. ( she is now a web designer!)

Then I discovered 'Prepping'.Of course, back them it was all American,and went initially,under the banner of survivalism.Then it seemed to soften up and the term prepper became more widespread.It appeared that unwittingly we had a label because we stocked up for the bad times.

My wife gets jumpy if we are down to the last 1/2 ton of coal or only 20 tins of corned beef in the pantry!And those stores have helped so much down the years when we have been hard up,out of work or whatever.

And therein lies the secret I guess.Ask your other half," how much emergency savings do we have? Work is looking a bit shaky"." And following that, " Do you know how long a claim takes for unemployment benefit? I think we need some extra grub in."

It doesn't have to be all asteroid strikes and New World Order - type scary stuff.

[sethorly]

My wife accepted the prepping attitude quite well, probably because of two things. Firstly, we have kids - so any way we can reduce the risk of problems for them is good. Secondly, she sees the benefit of me spending time with the kids learning bushcraft together (part of my preps).