Bugging Out with Children

[WiseOwl]

Not just children, but MY CHILDREN!

The two most awesomest kids on earth but the two most non listening, loudest kids on earth. Ages 5 and 1.5. They have screaming and laughing contests daily. The quiet game is a dream to me. LOL


I think about this from time to time.

Lets say there was this guy........................

Well, lets say there was an incident that disabled my family from getting in a car and leaving in a bad situation. Yeah we are very squared away at the house but what if we had to boogie? Either very quickly or planned.
I know all of the travel at night and sneak and yadda yadda. I can do that and maybe my wife. But how do you creep with 2 of these type of kids in tow?

We did buy them a nice big "expensive" radio flyer wagon for Christmas. Both of them fit in it very comfy. We could pull them as they slept or just chilled, but thats on pavement or road like surface.


I even ponder the fact of duct taping their mouths shut or pumping them full of Nyquil to silence them if we need to be ninjas.

I can only imagine what some of the Jewish families hiding in Germany had to do.



I would love to hear some of yalls opinions on this. This is a real issue for me and my wife if the if if ever happens. Been thinking a lot lately.

Wiseowl.

[protus]

1st off...you will creep with kids your age. try walking with them now or puilling them in thier wagon..your pace of lets say 3 mph will be cut in half. a 5 mile walk will take say 6-8 hours vs 2-3 if you were alone.

what youll notice real fast that your kid will go go go go...go...for hours with thier friends,,,,but 10 mins of mom and dad walking turns into a " my legs hurt..." event lmao....i just make the walks longer ;)


try and make it fun...get them in the habit of walking about all you can do...


on the silence thing...youll do what you need to if its that bad and your hiding from zee germans.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

They must be trained. That gets alot of people feelings but it's the truth. We train them to do everything else so movement and silence can also be instilled on command. This is not to be abused when you have just had enough of the chatter after a long bad day because they will become accustomed to that.
1.5 can be put in a gp large frame if needed. I hauled my older one all over germany in one when his little legs got tired from castle ruin exploring. The but to this is that your spouse becomes responsible for hauling the supplies and your ninja moves become kill shots for the little one so work on it now.
Look real hard at refugee footage from around the world and what they are doing when they come into the refugee camps from wherever they bugged out from. Much can be learned from those who had to

[Cimarron]

Oh I know what you're talking about WiseOwl, and it doesn't necessarily get easier with age. Try two teenagers (16 & 14) walking a trail and trying to be quiet. One just HAD to tell the other something about something that was soooo important they couldn't just wait. I tell them to keep it down and they look at me all bug-eyed like I asked them to stop breating LOL.

Both Matt and Protus brought up good points. Train them and make it fun. We have devised hand signals while on the trail...crude and elementary but they work...mostly :D. I let them create most of them but they have a strong beginning coming from military hand signs. They like to use them, had fun in making new ones, and they keep quiet...sort of.

Another area is bugging out. Where we would go from different places. What if were driving home, at home, in the city...etc. At their G-parents farm we have a bug out area not far from the house they can run and hole up for a little while. We marked trails and named different locations that only we know. Again, I let them decide and plan routes and then I would tweak things that were not safe or made a whole lot more work then necessary. Only them and me know the locale and where they would go and in what order if they bugged out from the farm and I wasn't there when they left.

Three years ago my 'little man' was five. We would walk on horse trails around a local lake. ups and downs, grass, rocks, dirt and a creek. He went over all of it. To keep him quite/r we found something he could count to himself and would tell me when he had ten or so. Worked pretty good. It wasn't until the end of the summer that he could do the shortest trail at 5mi. He had his little pack and was trying to keep up with his older two siblings the best he could. It's amazing how much energy those little bodies burn, and how much they need to consume to keep going, or how much they will sleep after walking that far. We tried taking toys but were too loud or would get lost so I found keeping his mind going worked better.

Good Luck.

ETA: Another exercise we do is, 'can you hear them before you see them?' Most of the area's we go to have other hikers and horseback riders. I'll ask them if they can hear people before they see them. It keeps their mouths shut and their ears open and it's not a bad practice to get into.

[thedreamers]

every one brings up good points. the wagon can be a good thing to. we used to use one of the big garden wagons with the big fat wheels. they work on most types of ground, alittle hard in heavy wooded areas at night. i ended up making a harness that hooked to me to pull when we would do lots of walking cause little ones tired quick, so did i at first but got used to it.

[hikinbob]

Use a Kelty kid carrier pack for wifes BOB. It has a zip off small pack is Little sons BOB. When he gets tired she can zip his pack onto hers and carry him.
Training will help with noise. Also Melitonion will make them sleepy. But moving at night they will already be tired. And in a real SHTF situation they will be scared with will help.