who do you care (prep for) about?

[rockriver]

an associate is working hard to prepare.
very hard.
--
we were discussing folks that will show up at his house if the shtf.
i know a bunch of his relatives. i think they will show. if not initially- then
within the next month.
he thinks his hunting buddies will show. he's probably right.
his relatives live within an hour's drive.
i named some close relatives and proposed that associate would go and get
some very close relatives. some are older and some are teenagers.
he answered "No." they won't be coming to his house. .
--
he turned the tables on me.
i considered my 85 y.o. mother. she is 4 hours away. yes.
1. i care about her. 2. she was raised tough and would be a great asset.

my brothers/sisters/nieces/nephews live a long way from me. so it is doubtful
that they could get here, or that i could go get them.

so here's the question. will you go get your 85 y.o. mother/grandmother?
will you put your self or your teenage son in danger of driving 4 hours one way to
get grandma?
your son? the smart alec son, who always has his hand out, insisting you must give
him money. he works, but think prodigal son mentality. are you prepping for him to come?

your sister and her family? they live about an hour away. they are very well off financially,
but don't prep. they laugh at you. they flaunt their cars and money. their college age kids are healthy but smoke dope and have attitudes. laugh about their trouble with the law. disrespect authority. will you go get them? will you accept them when they drive up?

your preacher? he's always letting it get into his sermons that he's not paid enough.
he's ex military. his wife dresses like tammy faye baker. he is the pastor therefore he doesn't work on saturday clean up days. when a scripture discussion comes up, you best agree with him or he demeans you. they pity folks with gardens, because, its clear the Lord isn't blessing them, or they'd have enough money for food.

your best hunting buddy. great guy. great hunter. ex-military. Nam. wife works hard at the bank. he drinks too much. she flirts with you. 3rd marriage for both of them. he has all the fishing boats, and hunting gear, but stays behind on his payments. doesn't prep. because with his military skills, he'll be able to get whatever he needs.
--
do you trust them. will you put yourself in harms way to get them? will they carry their share of the work? will they hurt you so there will be plenty for their family?

[goatlady]

Most of us eventually come to the realization that we cannot "save" everybody. It's hard decisions that must be made and for each it will be different. There will come a time that hearts MUST be hardened or everyone will die unnecessarily. Think the ant and the grasshopper, think Joseph in Egypt storing up for the coming famines he was told of. Everyone today has access to the same information about potential coming hard times. What we do with that information is individual choices and I for one will not put my immediate family in any danger just because a relative or close friend refused to do anything with the information available. Their choice and my choice.

[1Admin]

I won't be "going and getting" anyone unless they are 5 minutes away and for some reason can't make it on their own.

The old skewl 80's movie "The Survivalist" had a pretty good depiction of some half way guy (we'd call him a "prepper" now a days) that ran around doing all this crap as the S was hitting TF. He was overly concerned with going to the bank and getting his coins and "jewels" out. Stupid place to keep them. For dramatic effect he steals a backhoe and rams in the front of the bank. The bank president comes out and says "aaahhh Todd, now why did you have to go and do that for?" Todd holds a pistol on him and says "go get my stuff." Tough guy, LOL. Typical media impression of idiots back then. Course while "Todd" (don't remember what they really called him) is off running around doing last minute preps and crashing into the bank, some nefarious characters pull a home invasion- he loses his wife and daughter over his need for some shiny stuff and a few more rolls of TP....

We can't "cradle to grave" people. I have "more than a few" I care for (prep for). Some I started prepping for when they were born that are 25, 22, 18 now. My pre-teen will be more useful than most of them. They all drive, they all know it's safe here and deep down, they will their crazy Uncle Rob will take care of them. But I cannot/will not go and get them. I'm lucky that the only older relatives I care for are relatively close by.

Highly suggest you spend a few weekends working with anyone you expect to live together/near in a bad situation. I have good friends that know that if they show up here naked (eeewww, LOL) I'll equip them and take care of them. They "get it" to an extent.

You have to factor in the relationship, their usefulness (besides just having "another gun"), their ability to keep their mouth shut, their willingness to WORK and CONFORM and their proximity to you.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

been discussed before and I always hear the "oh you aint that tough you cant just turn your back balhblahblah..." but why not so here we go again:
I will do what i can but there is a cutoff point. Some folks I dont like now, dont care what blood is, your mean and unprepared and i will off you myself no problem.
On going to get someone: I had a falling out with a group not to long ago, who are portraying something they are not, but in one of our discussions I told them that they didnt have a group that they had a loose collection of people some of who believe that SOMEONE was going to come get them and their supplies and whisk them away to an unknown location on which they still hadnt decided on except for what i later found out was an inner circle that had plans of their own. So there are people out there who are aging, too civilized (for lack of a better term) to become killers, too rich to be bothered with such details or just plain foolish who think that some Mogadishu Qualified Team is prepping to rush in with some supierior equipment and firepower to get them because their ninja skills and friendship are just that good. The majority of this "group" started in 2001 hadnt even bothered to get firearms, training, CCWs, H2H or anything like that. They just dumped money into things and only recently decided after getting scared that maybe they needed to do something so they went and shot once, oooooohhhh, yep they are ready to beat the hoarde back now.

Talk to someone from or who has served in Rhodesia, Somalia, Balkans, Haiti or many other places where S has HTF and see if they got grandma out before the village was leveled or sister was raped when the rebels rolled thru or if travel was do-able to go get cousin slim with his hidden AK to help defend the fort. Ask yourself this, how many vehicles were rolling towards N.O. during Katrina?

[goatlady]

Right on, Matt!

[xdpatriot]

I agree with Matt. It's definately time to get serious. That's the hard part, finding people you can trust. I would love to take care of all my friends and family. But bottom line, I will not take food and water out my children's mouths to feed people who wouldn't take the time to buy a little extra in good times. I've thought about this a lot. I'll give and I'll help, but not at the expense of my kids. It's just impossible for us to supply everyone we know with the things they need.

[rockriver]

and the score is

associate 4
rockriver 0

lots of very good points were made.
thanks for replying.
i have so much to do...
to prep.

[WiseOwl]

I prep for my household. I have a few other folks that I have now hit upside the head with the 2x4 of reason. I hope they have listened. I have a couple of folks that would be great assets in bad times. Not really a group per se but people that can get together if need be. My lil pile of food is only going to feed my home. I can give out ramen noodles to someone out of the house but that's about it. One thing I can say is for someone that is 2 years into this on an almost non existent budget, I am good for a few. At my current rate I am 2 years away from become where I want to be. That will also give me time to get rid of all diapers and baby formula, etc. I have been more for cartridges than anything else as if late.
Would I turn someone away in a shtf world? Absolutely.
Would I go pick folks up? Nope.
I have given the instructions to my folks and if they followed them, then we are going to be ok.

Now, if my brother would hurry up and get that property in north ga so we can have our BOL.........

[arcangel911]

I posted on this topic a while back, and I have since revised my original ideas….

I now think of a Survivor Island type set-up. Which is pretty much, you are on your own. I think about people and who I would save, but I also think-
“Would they save me or would they come for me?”
“Can I trust them?”
“Are they prepping”
“What skills do they have?”
“Are they going to be with us, have my back in a fight and be able to stay the long course?”
“Medical conditions?”

My plan in thought originally was to return and get my parents and extended family and get them to the location. I have since realized that this would be a big problem. Not only would the distance be great and possibly perilous, but I would then have to contend with my families ideals and logic. Basically, they would want to save everyone, and although I find that noble, I have learned that not everyone wants to be saved and shown how to work hard to survive.

I have two biological siblings. One brother and one sister. My brother although spoiled and basically has been given everything by my parents, is still the grasshopper and plays his trumpet whenever it suits him everyday regardless of the time and the neighbors. However, he has come to realize that my parents have spoiled him, and I got the raw end of the deal, so at least he admits that part- so he can be taught. And I think it would be better for him, to struggle to get to my place and learn how and what life is really like. Those 6 years at college my parents paid for, heh- he will learn more in 2 weeks in the PAW that what he did at that college…

My sister on the other hand, is not allowed on the property. My brother and sister together are and were never a good combination. My sister has been a problem child since day one- literally. And since that day, my parents have done everything for her and paid for it. I on the other hand, will not be duped. She would be a problem and I foresee constant fights within the group started by her. For although she is a big time problem, she is a big time manipulator. Which is not a good thing in a enclosed environment when you are depending on others to be with you on most items that come to pass.

I have been thinking a lot about who to save, but ultimately it comes down to me and the ones I can save that are in close proximity to me. As someone stated above, you can’t save everyone.

[rice paddy daddy]

No one knows where we live except immediate family. Not co-workers, nor aquaintenances. My Mom & Dad are both gone, the wife's parents live 1,000 miles away. The 5 kids know they and their spouses and children are welcome if times get bad. That's it, no one else.

[tech]

Not going to pick anyone up. Nearest blood relative is 12 hours away, I don't see them trying to make such a journey. BIL is only 45 minutes away (on a good day) and would be welcomed but he knows his way here...that's on him. No other relatives know our location, and I intend on keeping that way. They want to live as sheeple, they can perish as such.

[JUSTIFIED]

Interesting thread and answers. My side of the family is scattered and would go other directions. A few of them I wouldn't trust enough to invite.

Patriot Lady has a mother 1hr.20min. away that lives on a large farm and would likely be ok but we could her if we needed to. One son 5 hours away in Dallas that we have pre-arranged a bug-out plan with. He should be able to get to us. If need be I've arranged a way to get to him unless things are so bad I wouldn't even have a chance.

We've got some prepper friends who have an open invitation to join us if they can get to us.

We're working to get back into the country to a private, secluded location that is easily defensible so when the shtf we'll be ready. We're about a year away from being as prepared as we should be and a few years from being prepared as we'd like to be. If we'd won that 640 million lotto we'd have just bought several thousand acres and invited all ya'll to head our way!....but I guess you gotta buy a ticket for a chance to win....oh well...

In a nutshell we've got two family members we worry about enough to go get if we can and the others are on their own.

[JUSTIFIED]

Not going to pick anyone up. Nearest blood relative is 12 hours away, I don't see them trying to make such a journey. BIL is only 45 minutes away (on a good day) and would be welcomed but he knows his way here...that's on him. No other relatives know our location, and I intend on keeping that way. They want to live as sheeple, they can perish as such.

It's tough to think about family and friends that way tech but I'm with you. If they're ignorant enough to think the country's headed in a good direction with the current leadership and dumb enough to keep voting these fools into office then they're on their own.

[SCinPNW]

I prep for our immediate family first, and then others. My parents who are in their 80's, live 5.5 hours away, if they could get here, I would take care of them. Due to our family situation I am not sure if I could go and get them, although I/we could meet them half way if needed. I have a brother who lives about an hour away but he is too busy with "life" to be concerned about prepping and the end of life was we know it. Plus, a few years ago, we were having a conversation and I mentioned the current recession and he went on to explain that we were not in a recession. Okay, whatever was my thought. If he and his family showed up I would not turn them away, but I kind of doubt that they will.

We have neighors who I would team up with if needed. Other than that, it is just us. My husband's family all lives too far away, i.e., California, New Mexico, and Texas.

SC

[claymore]

Just prep for myself, which is tougher then when wife was alive. Now I say no to me (LOL).