The Top Way to Undermine Family Readiness

True readiness depends on many factors and any significant one that’s missing or fails is enough to weaken or obliterate a family’s readiness situation.

In certain circumstances, one facet or another might not be necessary or crucial. However, there’s no way to know what the next crisis a family will deal with is, so any and every shortcoming is a fundamental risk.

Nevertheless, there is one deficiency that, almost no matter what the readiness event is, will cause failure, potentially leading to great suffering and/or loss of life. It’s when one person is the sole champion and purveyor of readiness. That is, one family member that knows how to determine the severity of the situation, how/when to make required judgments, what countermeasures are needed, what resources/supplies are required, where supplies are, and when to take action. When all of that rests upon on person and everyone else knows little or nothing, there is a great insecurity.

Are you that person? Is it another family member? For illustration, let’s say you are that sole knowledgeable readiness person.

Imagine if you vanished this instant. Do you believe your family is capable of taking on readiness without you?

If your answer is yes and you believe your family can adapt, survive and thrive, yet they have not been a part of readiness planning and training, that is likely wishful thinking. If your answer is no, you have the realization that your family will be in trouble.

Crises of most any level create stress and fear. Typically, the least affected people are those that are well prepared and rehearsed. Throwing unprepared people into a crisis situation will only exacerbate fear and stress. People under that duress perform poorly and suffer mixed-up and illogical thinking. They often freeze when decisions and actions are required. Being confronted with something they have been unaware can happen to them, even with a well prepared leader, is a challenging predicament. With no authority guiding them, the odds of acting in an effective manner are very poor.

The reasons as to why someone gets enlightened to and embraces the need for readiness, while not materially involving family members, are many. Sometimes they don’t want to induce a family’s fear of confronting frightening topics. They may know that requisite countermeasures are too scary for others to deal with, especially young children. Often, family members dismiss and deny the need for readiness, believing that agencies or governments will protect them if an event should occur, or simply refuse to believe readiness crises can happen and the knowledgeable person doesn’t want that fight.

Whatever the reason for keeping a family in the dark is and as agonizing as forcing discussions about the realities of the world these days are, the pain of an unprepared family that has no readiness confronting a catastrophic circumstance, is certain to be far worse. Every day there are reports of tragedies big and small that affect people and families in sometimes horrific ways. The best outcomes happen for those with preparations and resources to deal with them, whether by chance or strategy, but especially, by far, for those with an understanding, a plan, and means to execute.

An effective approach is to start small with one mild scenario that could affect your family. Talk through potential causes, whether or not such events occur randomly, how people become vulnerable, and what preparations might prevent problems. Then determine preventive measures or things that mitigate risk and create actionable solutions.

Once you are comfortable having these frank discussions, introduce another basic readiness topic, then another, gradually acclimating the household to family preparedness. Assigning specific roles and tasks for each scenario can calm fears by establishing clear responsibilities for unexpected events. By strategizing together as a family, confidence grows, making difficult situations less frightening and more manageable than they would be without preparation.

With an approach like that, your family can be trained to participate in readiness planning and execution, at least for some scenarios. Additionally, if you, the leader, are not there, your family is much more likely to get through a readiness event than they would be if they continued avoiding the uncomfortable realities they need to face.

Remember “When the need is obvious, it’s too late,” so start involving your family in readiness now.