Start em while their young

To some the idea of prepping is a fad.  Spun off of the latest TV show Doomsday Preppers, or the calendar clicking to 2012, and fueled by "The Walking Dead" and World War Z or movies about the apocalypse.   To others its joke causing ridicule or suspicions of paranoia.  There are the lucky few for whom its a natural extension of their lifestyle.   Rural living, growing your own food, self reliance. Then there are people like me.  Urban (or suburban) lifestyle, trapped in the city by jobs or family, but have or want to integrate an outdoor and prepping lifestyle into their daily lives.    

The challenge becomes with the hustle and bustle of daily life, how to find time for it all.  One of my biggest solutions has been to make the Outdoor lifestyle and prepping a part of my quality time With my family, and not something I try to "fit in" around them.

My 11 year old son doesn't even think about it as prepping when he is at the gun range. Or setting up camp in the back yard, or going on a long hike or bike ride with our packs on  To him its adventure and fun hanging out with dad.

When I signed up and took our community CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) class, I signed up both myself and my daughter.  Every week for 6 weeks she looked forward to "Daddy Daughter" day when just the two of us would go out to dinner, eat, talk, share, and then go to CERT class together. And you can hear the pride when she talks about being CERT trained.

She is in collage studying to be a Veterinarian, but she also took the Med skills and first aid classes in high school.  She knows she is the designated medic for the family, so she keeps track and inventory of all the OTC and fish meds.

When we talk about sheltering in place, they know we are a team, and they know their responsibilities.  Its not foreign to them.  Its just what we do.  Start them while they are young and even city kids will be in a prepared self-reliant mindset from an early age.