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When Does Preparedness Change from Diligence in to Obsession

If you spend 90% of your time/money on prepping i think you have some kind of mental issues. Quality of life is probably low. I wouldnt want to be around someone like that. And i know people like this. They obsess over every bad thing that happens and hang on to Qanon’s pecker like its gospel. Like many on here i have stuff for me and my family to survive for a descent amount of time. I teach my oldest girl different survival skills but the last i want to do is freak my family out over everything that could end the world

Agreed 100%

Preparedness is a mindset and not sitting in a bunker awaiting the apocalypse.

I have slowly accumulated food and water purification etc. that will sustain my family for 3 months or more because I am the protector and provider for my family. But, I am also the gray man. I don't sit around and talk about black helicopters, Qanon BS, etc. We just live our lives with the peace of mind knowing that we will be ok.

For those who are interested here are a couple of resources that I like that strike a healthy balance:

https://fieldcraftsurvival.com/ (excellent training and resource)
https://www.americancontingency.com/ (great training and great networking with others near you who are like minded and vetted)
 
Back when I was on active duty I spent a lot of time overseas. Along with my other jobs I was doing the disaster preparedness thing for the unit along with noncombatant evacuation programs. I had to program and develop shelter in place plans and stage sufficient supplies for continued operations with non-specific periods of time. For the noncombatants, I had to figure out what each family needed to have ready to leave with along with all the necessary paperwork, food supply for up to 3 days, money and everything else they would need if they families have to be gone in a hurry, usually planning on getting on a large Navy ship for sites close to an ocean, or evac via bus if the roads were passable, or in worse case getting on a plane and going to "nobody really knows until it happens".

The knowledge and experience I gained with that carries over to my day to day life now. I've been retired for close to 30 years but I have stocked the house, family houses and children's houses with sufficient food and other resources so they can shelter in place for at least 6 weeks and left them with instructions on how to extend that time to a year and in almost all cases they have taken the steps to extend their supplies.

They are knowledgeable enough to know that they will probably need to shelter in place and not be able to bug out. Just looking at traffic on the roads out of town on an average day lets you know that bugging out is not going to be a viable option. Being able to shelter in place for an extended time is about the only real alternative.
 
In my opinion, as a bare minimum, people should be prepared to survive at least one week with no electricity, no running water, no natural gas, no usable gasoline pumps, roads not usable, no internet, no cell service, etc ...
 
When Does Preparedness Change from Diligence in to Obsession?

I would say one indicator is that your and your family's quality of life suffers.
To be fair when the power goes out quality of life will suffer. Same with tap water. Imagine bugging in your home in the middle of August in GA with no AC. That would be rough.
 
Yep, if you are spending (wasting) all your todays worrying and prepping for a possible tomorrow, you're doing it wrong. Way wrong.

If 10% of your time is spent on something with a 10% likelihood, it could be argued that is reasonable. Now what has a 10% chance (or higher) of actually happening. Plan (prep) accordingly.
 
In my opinion, as a bare minimum, people should be prepared to survive at least one week with no electricity, no running water, no natural gas, no usable gasoline pumps, roads not usable, no internet, no cell service, etc ...

I have lived through all these things already. plus a few hurricanes, an EF 3 destroyed my job, a microburst destroyed my gun range, a straight line wind almost destroyed one house, my house in florida was flooded 2x in 10 months.... I'm 37.

I think it's prudent to have your sh*t together. If you can support your family through any (or all) of the above things, you're better off than many. Hell, my toddler was sick yesterday. Wife and I were both able to take off work (because we have jobs and saved PTO) and pay for a doctor visit (HSA account/insurance) and already had the right meds in the house to treat him. Yeah, it's inconvenient but less so if you have prepped correctly.

I could get fired today and we'd survive. My wife could get fired today and we'd survive. Hell we both could and would be alright for a while.

After that comes the chart to me. Power outages and sick kids are very likely, and medium annoying. Good chance we need water at some point due to any of the above reasons, but a few barrels and a rain collection thing off my gutters was $40. So the price and ease of implementation were super worth it.

In all the disasters I've gone through I've not fired a round in anger or needed to crack into my mylar rice and beans. I have those options, but the number one prep (for short term/local issues) is money. Number 2 was forethought
 
If you spend 90% of your time/money on prepping i think you have some kind of mental issues. Quality of life is probably low. I wouldnt want to be around someone like that. And i know people like this. They obsess over every bad thing that happens and hang on to Qanon’s pecker like its gospel. Like many on here i have stuff for me and my family to survive for a descent amount of time. I teach my oldest girl different survival skills but the last i want to do is freak my family out over everything that could end the world

Totally agree with all of this. If life becomes absolutely miserable, why would I stack preps to prolong the misery? I'm not saying we should not try to be prepared for whatever comes, but if it takes away from our quality of life to the point where we lose our humanity, it seems pretty futile to me.
 
Sorry to resurrect an almost month old thread, but found it interesting. There is also ones choice to not be a part of the "system" that would require you to prep so much in the first place, by living outside what most would consider the normal system. Anything that requires the participation of others to fulfill such a promise (ie living a comfortable and safe life within societal norms), can and will potentially break down in some capacity. Requiring you to prep for such events, as you are fully aware. But, conversely, I think anyone living a dependent life on others "good will" and promises is the real risk, one im unwilling to take for me or my family ever again if possible. We went through hurricane Ike in Ohio back in 09. No power, gas, or water (thankfully we lived on a river) for 10 days. We vowed never again to be that dependent on the system. We put a plan together and saved for a few years. Moved to a small county in Ga in 2013 after putting money aside and paying off all our debt (mostly by selling all the **** we thought society said we needed). We brought 2.5 acres which is all we needed for our plan. No more, no less. Built my own house (YouTube lessons), installed a small solar system to start that we could add to over time (again, YouTube showed me, and a few books). I looked for property that was spring fed, so we get our water straight out of the mountain. So, no mortgage, no water bill, no electric bill. We have managed to put away a lot of food, and I even took a job at a big box store working 3 days a week because I can (was in IT but hated it after a while). Point is, to us, living any other way is now crazy. Only wish I did it in my 30's...
Oh, and we do live in a mostly normal fashion. As our power grew, we added more stuff. We are up to 40 250w panels and 40kw.of lithium batteries. Plenty for us and my son's family now joining us.

I would recommend anyone that can, get out of debt, and off the system you've been told is normal. It's not....it's a modern system of financing **** that you really don't need to be happy, and requires that you conform, and will never be fully free.
 
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