# Do You Prep for Wayward Family?



## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

And furthermore, I *really* don't want to be working tonight, so here's another one.

Do you bring in additional preps for family members who may not be on board now but will think to come to you if things get real? I was delighted to hear from my SIL the other day that she is starting to prep, but most of our close family is not. 

I imagine for many of us, prepping for ourselves is a financial stress. So what to do about family members? What about people who have skills but don't prep?


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## ekim (Dec 28, 2012)

I have talked to all family members that are welcome to our home that they may come but I ask that they bring as much food, meds and personal items as they can. It will be tight if they all would come, but we can make room. I will admit that there are a couple of family member that are not welcome and would be turned away, no sense in inviting trouble as we don't get along any how and they would just be leaches any how. They won't prep and will have a hand out.

No, I can't afford to prep for them, but I am prepping as much as I can for all, and hope for the best.


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

We're the black sheep of his family, probably because he married me and I'm not at all mainstream, but that's an interesting point about the ones you don't get along with. Since, well...yep. Still, I think family is family and we'd have to do our best. Maybe I'll have a bug-out-from-family-location and just leave them all here!


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

I figure the family small as ours is, knows we are a couple of those nutty preppers. I would not turn immediate family away. A couple have health conditions that makes it iffy that they could even get to our home. The one son in law I will shoot on sight. The rest can come and I think we could feed them for a year. I dole out the tp though.


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

MrsInor said:


> The one son in law I will shoot on sight. I dole out the tp though.


:lol:


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## ekim (Dec 28, 2012)

MrsInor said:


> I figure the family small as ours is, knows we are a couple of those nutty preppers. I would not turn immediate family away. A couple have health conditions that makes it iffy that they could even get to our home. The one son in law I will shoot on sight. The rest can come and I think we could feed them for a year. I dole out the tp though.


I have a family member that will be met at the door with a gun in my hand, and he knows it.


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## tirednurse (Oct 2, 2013)

ekim said:


> I have talked to all family members that are welcome to our home that they may come but I ask that they bring as much food, meds and personal items as they can. It will be tight if they all would come, but we can make room. I will admit that there are a couple of family member that are not welcome and would be turned away, no sense in inviting trouble as we don't get along any how and they would just be leaches any how. They won't prep and will have a hand out.
> 
> No, I can't afford to prep for them, but I am prepping as much as I can for all, and hope for the best.


I prep for as many people as I can. will never be enough if things get bad, but for me most of what I do is prepare to be without and find ways to substitute. No store milk for the babies, we have goats. Garden of course, chickens that can produce 5 doz or more eggs a day. Pigs that can have more if needed. I try to focus mainly on adaptation and things that can be expanded quickly if needed. Planning is one of the keys to having the right set up for anyone that could show up. 
As for room for all of them.....we buy cheap RV's that need some repairs and turn them into prepper condos. In our yard are a 32' 5th wheel, 18ft camper, a cab over camper and Our latest is a 27' that can sleep 6 all self contained and outfitted with solar panel that will more than supply the 12 volt electric. great deal at $300.


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## NotableDeath (Mar 21, 2013)

The family we prep for are the ones in our house and our grandparents in the same town who are just as on board. The ENTIRE rest of the family resides over 200 miles away. And said family thinks of us as looney. Then again, they are the kind that have grown a bit to accustomed to getting whatever they want when they want. The rest of our family is actually considerably wealthy (But of course, none spent in preparations) While the 4 of us and the grandparents on my mothers side living here have always been . . well . . not as nice off. They are the kind that will be the 1st to resort to violence when everything is not being handed to them. So even if they did manage to make it the entire 200+ miles to us, i doubt we would ever have em in. The last thing any group needs is a person with a few cut wires just because they are family.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

I don't limit it to family. I love everyone and everyone is welcome to come stay with me if things get rough. My bug out location is in south western Montana, just ask around for Prepadoodle, everyone knows me.

<cough>


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## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

For years I tried to live closer to family and get them on board with being prepared for the world going to crap. They all blow it off and live in a self focused reality. In turn regardless that I love them, I've had to come to terms with writing them off as useless, on focused, grasshoppers. I simply can not afford to prep to take care of them and it pisses me off with their unconcerned attitude. I've decided to move away to where I've always wanted to live which is a long ways away from them all and north. I've told them and will tell them again their welcome to visit but I no longer even bother to discuss world issues with them and prepping. I prep what I can afford to prep and will continue to. If some of them happen to make it to me when shtf, I'm certainly not going to turn them away and will make due with the preps I have. But that's as far as I'm going to go anymore. They've made their choices and I won't be dragged down by them.






:shippingcontaineron


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## Doomsday (Jun 25, 2013)

YES! Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone was prepared? My wife and I were talking about this the other night. Our family is getting larger and we just added 2 more mouths to feed. Need to increases our prep’s (Thank God we can afford it). Its part of our BO plan for the family to meet at our home then go from there.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

With my move to Arizona, my preps for family in my old location will nearly double what I need just for my wife and me. No family down here to worry about HERE.


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

Prepadoodle said:


> I don't limit it to family. I love everyone and everyone is welcome to come stay with me if things get rough. My bug out location is in south western Montana, just ask around for Prepadoodle, everyone knows me.
> 
> <cough>


Packing our bags, we'll be right over! 

I think down the line when we're better situated, I'd like to stock extra, for unexpected guests or for barter. I already plan my preps on 5 adults, just because kids always eat more than you expect and I'd rather not have to rework it as they grow.


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## ekim (Dec 28, 2012)

indie said:


> Packing our bags, we'll be right over!
> 
> I think down the line when we're better situated, I'd like to stock extra, for unexpected guests or for barter. I already plan my preps on 5 adults, just because kids always eat more than you expect and I'd rather not have to rework it as they grow.


Something to keep in mind is that as kids get older their food likes can change big time, plus they become bottomless pits for food intake! just sayin...


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

That's where being creative comes in. But we have lots of variety and garden. They like healthy food and dislike things like fast food. I have a friend who feeds her kids donuts for breakfast every day and processed stuff for virtually every meal. They won't eat anything that remotely resembles real food now. It's all in how you start them I think. Then again, I think I just got super lucky with my three.


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## ekim (Dec 28, 2012)

My mom cooked great meals and we ate what she made or did without. With that said, I use to eat an entire box of cereal for breakfast. It was nothing for me to eat 2 or 3 whoppers and fries and 2 milk shakes for lunch. Boys go through food like it's the last supper, if they are active at all. And no I'm not over weight, I still weight the same as when I was 18, I'm just an inch shorter.


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## wesley762 (Oct 23, 2012)

I am planning to have my Wifes family show up whether I like it or not. Just the reality of things, Her Mother grew up in a time of being ready and prepping was the norm. Her Uncle on the other hand does no plaining at all and his family would diffently be a drain on us but I am getting ready for that. Everyone else is pretty much SOL. As for my side of the family the next closest relitives are over 2000 miles away so I don't really expect anyone to showup that far away.


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## Piratesailor (Nov 9, 2012)

Nope and hell nope

But the good thing is my siblings are preppers and live far away.


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## poriggity (May 12, 2013)

I prepare for my immediate family that lives in my house, me my wife and my baby daughter, and for my wife's in-laws who live 1/4 mile away. Everyone else is over 2000 miles away, and on their own.


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

Parents and siblings ONLY, wives and my side. Total of 10 people, sure nice having a small family. Rest are on their own....NO EXCEPTIONS


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## StarPD45 (Nov 13, 2012)

The Ant and the Grasshopper

NEW VERSION . . . (sad but true) The ant works hard, in the withering heat, all summer long. 
He builds his house and stores supplies for the winter. 
The grasshopper thinks that the ant is a fool. He laughs, dances and plays the summer away, preparing nothing for the coming winter. 
Winter comes, the ant is safe and warm. 
The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and fed, while others are cold and starving! 
CBS, NBC, ABC & CNN show up to provide pictures of shivering grasshoppers, next to a video of an ant in his comfortable home, with a table filled with food. 
America is stunned by the sharp contrast! How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer this way? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah, with the grasshopper. 
Everyone cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green". 
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house, where the news stations film the group singing "We Shall Overcome". 
Jesse then has the group pray for the grasshopper's sake, and reminds the group to contribute to his group, so that he can "continue the fight" for grasshoppers, everywhere! 
Ted Kennedy & John Kerry exclaim, in an interview with Tom Brokaw, that the ant has gotten rich, off the back of the poor grasshopper! Both call for an immediate tax hike, to make the ant pay "his fair share"! 
Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity For Grasshoppers Act", retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire the proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his house is confiscated by the government. Hillary Clinton gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper, in a defamation suit against the ant. 
The case is tried in federal court, with a jury comprised of unemployed welfare recipients. 
Surprise! The ant loses the case! The story ends, as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food, while the government house he lives in (which happens to be the ant's old house) crumbles around him, due to lack of maintenance! 
The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found, dead, in a drug-related incident. 
The house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders, who terrorize this once-peaceful neighborhood. 

Of course, there is an even newer version out there now.


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## dannydefense (Oct 9, 2013)

The only direct preps we've done for others is our immediate family, and even that only goes so far as buying a few boxes of ammo for their rifles which we keep on hand. They always have some reason why they can't afford any (they make decent money, though they do have a lot of bills) so we got fed up with trying to coax them at one point and started adding their calibers to our ammo preps.

One of them also sells survival gear online but has ABSOLUTELY NO kit of her own (I'm sorry, I know a guy named bob and I'm anti-acronymonious, so I call it a kit). Once again, there's always a reason. So for Christmas this year we're buying her the basics along with a decent backpack to put it all in. She'll get to hold on to it and either ruin it or build it, but after we've done our part that's her business.

Other than that our way of prepping for others is by making sure we're prepared. If we're prepared and within reason we should be able to take others into the fold who are not, and help them stay on their feet regardless of what kind of scenario we're looking at.


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

^^Great Christmas idea!

If I had enough time/money, I'd love to have small packets to hand out with things like seeds, a little food, etc. But there would never be enough and you'd end up with a lot of stray dogs.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Over time we settled on 25 family's in our group. That was a number we felt covered all our skill needs ,security and that we could easily provide for.
We now figure we could support up to 35 family's. However the only way anyone is getting in is invited and they will earn that invitation. 
No,..... wayward family does not meet the test.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

I love my family (and everyone) unconditionally. I love them enough to allow them to accept their responsibility for their own actions or inactions.

That is what unconditional love is. Divine love is the love of the Creator. The Creator has the means to provide for them and I have faith that they will be taken care of - in this world or the next.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

No I don't. Most make way more money that I do and live a lavish life style, think more of themselves and less of their family and have more than ample opportunity to prepare for themselves. I do have a few close family members who while I don't prep for them, I know I will have to come to their rescue and take them in if they are to have a chance. That I can accept as my responsibility. I will take them in, I will feed them as best I can and I will do what I can to protect them as best I can. 

That's why in my preps I look at it more from the angle of being more sustainable than I do at rat holing away 48 packs of toilet paper and cases of MRE's. 16 bucks might buy me a case of can veggies that wont last long but it will also buy me a fruit tree that will produce several bushel baskets of fruit every season for years to come! Its the gift that keeps on giving...


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

StarPD45 said:


> The Ant and the Grasshopper
> 
> NEW VERSION . . . (sad but true) The ant works hard, in the withering heat, all summer long.
> He builds his house and stores supplies for the winter.
> ...


Unfortunately that's probably more true than not in this day and age...


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## PalmettoTree (Jun 8, 2013)

indie said:


> And furthermore, I *really* don't want to be working tonight, so here's another one.
> 
> Do you bring in additional preps for family members who may not be on board now but will think to come to you if things get real? I was delighted to hear from my SIL the other day that she is starting to prep, but most of our close family is not.
> 
> I imagine for many of us, prepping for ourselves is a financial stress. So what to do about family members? What about people who have skills but don't prep?


I'm my book family comes first and I will extend a hand to extended family to include by marriage.

BUT!!

I have a sister who cannot be trusted in any way shape or form. I did not know that until she cost me over $50,000 and that is likely an underestimation. I would help her son and family but not her.

You should be sure of who you help in a SHTF. Your and your family's life will depend on it.


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

I've been thinking about that and plan to talk it over with the hubs. All of his family would be welcome, but probably none of mine. It's hard to imagine ever having to turn someone away, even an acquaintance, but it's obviously not possible to help everyone. Would if I could.


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## ekim (Dec 28, 2012)

I've already said I will help a limited few, but to those who happen to randomly come to my door "NO". Why are we into prepping in the first place? Could it be because of those who don't / won't provide for themselves! If you want to continue to promote lazy people with a hand out asking for more free stuff be my guest. Why is this country failing around us, could it be because our government thinks we should take care of those who refuse to do jack shit to help themselves. Does this make me a complete a$$hole, probably, but I won't carry others that won't help themselves. I've been on the broke side, I won't bore you with details, but thank God my house was paid for before the SHTF about 11 years ago for me. 16 months and not one penny from a job or friends but I did sell a collection we had and help someone sell a large collection they inherited. Yes, we got a Christmas food collection from a friend through the local church and $40 cash, but that was it. Then again we didn't ask for help we tighten our belts and did what we had to. Yes, I made donations back to that church congregation many times more than we got, but I owed them for being there for us. Have I wasted money, hell yes, but it was always money I earned, not a handout.


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## Boss Dog (Feb 8, 2013)

I think probably everyone in my family makes more money than me. But few will make even the slightest prep. Most are self centered and selfish. 
This may sound harsh but, some of your worse enemy's will have the same last name that you have or use to have... 
because they know you, how to push your buttons and that (and what) you have prepped. They will suck you dry and think nothing of it. 
Some could change after a catastrophe, most won't. I will take in those who bring supplies with them and who work and contribute. I like the idea of procuring old RV's. 
Those who mooch and won't work will be put out. 
2 Thessalonians 3:10


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

I like that verse, thank you.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

I am the only one left in my immediate family, the rest are over 1k miles away. It's extremely unlikely the will seek me out. I am the black sheep of my family. My wife has 2 sisters and a couple of nephews. All will be welcome except for the youngest sisters bf. He is dog food.


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

LunaticFringeInc said:


> No I don't. Most make way more money that I do and live a lavish life style, think more of themselves and less of their family and have more than ample opportunity to prepare for themselves. I do have a few close family members who while I don't prep for them, I know I will have to come to their rescue and take them in if they are to have a chance. That I can accept as my responsibility. I will take them in, I will feed them as best I can and I will do what I can to protect them as best I can.
> 
> That's why in my preps I look at it more from the angle of being more sustainable than I do at rat holing away 48 packs of toilet paper and cases of MRE's. 16 bucks might buy me a case of can veggies that wont last long but it will also buy me a fruit tree that will produce several bushel baskets of fruit every season for years to come! Its the gift that keeps on giving...


That's the same thing with the fruit trees I did. I went broke buying fruit trees and plants. Better ROI than cans of corn. Less trash to have to do something with also.

As far as prepping for family, I am in about the same boat. The rest of my family is rich. I will shoot my aunts and uncles on sight if need be. They are NOT welcome over here.

I only prep for my gramma and I. My weakness is my gramma. I love her dearly and will do my best to make sure she is provided for in SHTF situation. She is the only family I am prepping for.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

indie said:


> And furthermore, I *really* don't want to be working tonight, so here's another one.
> 
> Do you bring in additional preps for family members who may not be on board now but will think to come to you if things get real? I was delighted to hear from my SIL the other day that she is starting to prep, but most of our close family is not.
> 
> I imagine for many of us, prepping for ourselves is a financial stress. So what to do about family members? What about people who have skills but don't prep?


Yup. My preparation includes supplies for more than I envision. If nothing else, it'll only strengthen the group.


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## kjoberk (Nov 6, 2013)

It depends. My parents do their own prep. My Inlaws, while not prepping (at least to my knowledge) are smart and could handle it. They'd both be welcome with us. My brother in law too. He's ex military, knows a lot, and can fend for himself and small family. Sad to say, as much as I love him, I don't think I would be so welcoming with my brother. From what I understand, he plans to just go to my parents house and let them take care of him if SHTF. He honestly would bring zero to the table. His wife might be helpful, but I wouldn't count on her coming along. 

Most of our friends would be welcome with open arms as they would be useful. Most of them are or we're military, and have the same mindset we do.


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