Have you considered teaching your children survival? If yes, kudos. If no, why not? Think of it, will your children survive on their own when SHTF? I assume we all would want to answer yes to this question, but over 80% can’t. We’ve suddenly realized how vulnerable our kids are without us.
The seeming reluctance or failure of parents, especially keen preppers, to equip their children for survival situations is highly perplexing. After all, for centuries now, children have remained the most vulnerable category of living things on earth. A baby elephant has a higher shot at survival than a toddler or elemental does when without parents.
Demystifying The Reluctance Behind Teaching Your Children Survival
We are aware of the things I’ve mentioned above and even more, like how children are the most trafficked humans on earth, most exposed to danger and most helpless against assault. Now, if situations like this are so alarming, what do you think of your children’s survival when SHTF, say when peace becomes scarce or a natural disaster strike? Are your thoughts settled? You know your kids can’t survive the wilderness on their own if it ever comes to it, so what’s your reason for leaving them vulnerable?
Relax though. You aren’t alone in this. From my research, I’ve understood although parents can bear to imagine their kids in dangerous situations, they are never willing to think of their kids struggling to survive without them. Denial. I’m a parent myself, so I understand your feelings, but you need to know that denial does not stop anything from happening.
You will not always be with your kids. If you’re out of town and a wildfire starts back home, would your children know what to do? It could be an earthquake that strikes when you’re at work while your kids are at school. There are hundreds of reasons you could be separated from your children when SHTF, and if you think you’d always have them close, how about death? No one lives forever, buddy. It’s harsh but true.
Recommendations For Teaching Your Children Survival
Having agreed that you will not always be around to protect your kids when SHTF, I think it’s necessary to ready them for such moments, don’t you think so? Of course, you do. However, numerous disasters could strike, so I won’t be suggesting how to escape each. Rather, I’ll group children into three age groups: 1—5, 6—10 and 11—19, and discuss how to prepare each properly ahead. Here we go.
Toddlers & Preschoolers (1—5)
Now, as anyone would agree, kids in this age bracket are the most vulnerable when it’s time for a survival rush. Therefore, if you have a kid or grandkid in this group, there’s never a better time to start survival lessons than right now.
True, these are toddlers who can’t even tell you what they want perfectly, so you’re not expecting them to do so much when SHTF. But then they can do so much by doing so little. How? Well, the first preparation for your preschoolers is to teach them calmness when there’s trouble. Sounds easy if you’re present, but what if you aren’t?
Ask For Some Calm
Few people would be willing to be saddled with the responsibilities of a child who can barely listen and only understands crying. So, you have to get them in shape pretty soon. You can teach them quiet even when there’s disturbance by faking havoc, particularly noisy havocs, and then requiring them to keep quiet as though it was a game. Give them rewards for keeping quiet after counting 1,2,3. If you do this regularly, anyone else would easily keep the kids calm in your absence, although this person would have to know this technique, so you may have to share with members of your assistance group.
Teach Them Obedience
While I understand that kids can be persistent, they must be obedient. However, kids take a while to trust new faces. And you don’t want your kids following orders by every adult, even a stranger. So, what you should do is introduce your children to close adults early enough so they can become familiar before SHTF.
Keep in mind that kids who don’t obey instructions may cause extra havoc by tampering with specific items or can put the entire group in problem by crying when they shouldn’t. Also, they may injure themselves when they handle dangerous items.
Introduce Appropriate Skill Set
Introducing the appropriate skills to your kids follow. You have to teach your kids certain skills which they can easily execute when you aren’t there. Teaching them to put on the proper clothing in different weather conditions is particularly important. True, kids may pick up this knowledge themselves, but it may take some time, so you can subtly assist them. You can do this by suggesting the right ideas to them while discussing as you walk around the house.
A statement like “oh, look, it’s about to rain, we should put on a sweater and take cover where the rain won’t affect us” is an excellent way to go. You could also hint them on the relevance of the weather outside to their clothing. You can say, “today is so cold. I’m even freezing; we should put on our gloves and boots” to hunt them on how to dress.
If you continue to hold such talks with your toddlers, I’m sure they’ll soon know how to cater to their clothing according to the weather. As an example, my 4-year-old goddaughter always carries a cap and pair of gloves in her mini bag, knows not to step outside without shoes, and knows she can dial 911 in case of an emergency.
Conclusion On Teaching Your Children Survival
Teaching your children survival is crucial to keeping them safe. As emphasized repeatedly, you will not be available to protect your kids forever. Failing to prepare them beforehand is equivalent to keeping cattle chained for a lion. Go through the above guidelines for preparing your toddlers & preschoolers for SHTF situations and start your lessons with them. In the final part of this blog, we’ll treat how to teach your elementary schoolers and teenagers’ survival.