Handling Common Objections When Getting Your Family to Prep

Guest Post by Dan Sullivan from Survival Sullivan

It’s frustrating, isn’t it? When your loved ones are unawaken, you feel like the more you try to convince them to prepare, the less receptive they are. There you are, trying to save their lives and, instead of showing gratitude and appreciation for your efforts… they all think you’re nuts.

Prepping alone works in theory but, the reality is, when disaster strikes, if they’re not prepared, you’ll have no choice but to stay behind and help them and that may very well mean the end for all of you.

Just imagine… mass social breakdown all around you and your spouse standing in the doorway petrified… your hiding under the bed and YOU KNOW you need to evacuate or you all perish. What will you do then?

There’s a little secret to finally getting them to listen to what you have to say and get them to join your cause. It’s not a magic pill and it does require a little bit of practice but the thing is… it works.

The secret is to have an assertive behavior. This way you can handle pretty much any objection thrown your way and pave the road to getting them to join you and be happy they did.

The Meriam-Webster online dictionary defines assertiveness as:

“disposed to or characterized by bold or confident statements and behavior <an assertive leader>”

Now, I know what you’re thinking: showing confidence is too vague and may seem like it’s not enough. But confidence comes from passion and from a strong belief that you’re doing the right thing. When you realize this, everything you say will make sense. Too many preppers fail to convince their families to join simply because they themselves have no clue what they’re preparing for.

When you’re acting like they’re the ones who are crazy, even though they won’t agree to it, at some level they’ll buy into it. Keep it up and they’ll soon start to see things your way.

Once you learned to talk in an assertive manner, you’re ready to fight their objections. Although it may seem like our own family is impossible to talk to, the reality is that most of these objections are the same. That’s why I’ve put together a list of the most common ones, complete with comebacks for each.

One thing you need to remember before we begin is to NOT get discouraged if they don’t react positively the first time. This takes a little bit of time and patience. OK? Great, let’s do this!

Objection #1: “If something bad happens, we’ll just come to you!”

This is by far the easiest objection you can handle… as long as you don’t feel offended by it. It usually comes from friends and relatives outside your household but the great thing about it is that it implies that they’re expecting Doomsday as well. They’re just not that sure it will happen so they’d rather leech on to you.

The solution is simple: make it clear to them that, while your door will be shut post-disaster because you have a family to protect, it is open right now. If they’re interested, you’d be more than happy to teach them and expand your network of preppers.

But you gotta get them motivated. They’re open to the idea, they just need to realize that unless they do something, even if we’re talking about little things, then they will surely die.

Objection #2: “Nothing bad ever happens here. What makes you think it ever will?”

That seems logical… until you see the big flaw. Just because something bad has never happened so far, it doesn’t mean it won’t. To tackle this objection you need proof. You need facts that show that average people like you and your loved ones either died or had their lives forever changed due to some unforeseen event.

The trick is to convince them to prepare for smaller SHTF scenarios, not for nation-wide disasters such as an EMP or a nuclear attack. Save those for later, the goal right now is to get them through the preparedness door.

Blackouts, heavy snow, floods, killer tornados, volcanic eruptions and so on happen all the time. Then there’s the very real possibility of being robbed, raped, that of an economic crisis, of riots outside your window and so on. Start digging for such events that occurred in your town or region. They don’t even have to be recent they just need to have happened where you live. Show them the facts and do it the way I taught you: in an assertive manner.

Another approach you can have is to tell them they’re in denial. Make them see that they have a problem because they’re the ones who can’t conceive something bad ever happening to them. Awful things happen to good people all the time and only one has to happen ONCE to change your life forever.

We all get that it’s cool to act like you don’t care and to live your life but that’s not the world works. That’s how teenagers view the world, not mature human beings. Are they teenagers? Go ahead and ask them that.

Objection #3: “This is all a waste of time. It’s ridiculous.”

Ok, this is a tough one, right? Nothing makes you feel more frustrated than having your spouse tell you these words.

If he or she said that, I’m willing to bet you made the mistake of telling them straight up about some of those “exaggerated” Doomsday scenarios. That’s ok, you can still turn them around as long as you play your cards right.

First off, you have to let them know that this really isn’t a waste of time. Preparing your bug out bag is fairly easy as you can just add up one item at a time. It’s also really cheap. Storing canned food is something a lot of people do anyway, you’re just making sure you have enough stashed up should something happen. Camping is also a fun way to spend your weekends and, even though it’s not the same thing as bugging out, it’s still better than nothing. Remember, you can’t let them think prepping is hard, your only goal should be to get them started.

We’re using every argument we can to show them this is not a waste of time. The key word here is “time”; that was their main concern all along! You’re just pointing out that preparing for a short-term crisis and other critical events is really easy and fun. The skills you learn can be successfully be applied when going camping, which is something you’ve long wanted to do. The “camping” excuse, by the way, is a great introduction to prepping for those who don’t believe in the end of the world. Once they’ve spent a night in the middle of the nature, learning to light a fire, using all the tools you have (such as binoculars) and practicing outdoor skills (such as building a shelter), chances are they’re going to be hooked.

See, it’s the experience of survival that will convince them to join you. It’s one thing to explain someone what prepping is and it’s another to let him experience it.

Give them your survival knife. Let them hold it in their hands, to feel powerful, protected and safe. Start talking to them about all the ways in which one can use the knife and how the military and the navy seals have done incredible things with knives just like the one in their hands. Storytelling is an extremely powerful way to get someone hooked on something. Put some passion into it.

Now, there are other ways to handle the “it’s all a waste of time objection”. For example, you can cut the chit-chat and be more direct by saying:

“Look, all it takes for one flood to put the entire town under water. The stores will be closed, the authorities are going to show up too late and probably move us to God knows where. It’s much better to know it’s coming, to protect our home by making sure no water floods us and to keep enough food for at least a couple of weeks. I’m not trying to scare anyone, I’m a realist.”

This works but I recommend you do it only after you’re tried easing them into it. Otherwise, they’ll just be very skeptical and it’s going to take extra time to get through their mental defenses.

Of course, this is just an example. You have to find your own words and speak to them in an assertive manner. Stand your ground and give them time to awaken. And when they’re finally going to start doing little things to prep, that’s when you know you can put together a true survival plan that will increase your chances of survival.

Now what? Well, you brought all your arguments but if you really want them hooked up, the best thing you can do is to give them a few beginner resources to start reading. Reading about other people telling them they need to prep will create some sort of social pressure on them to do it. I recommend you start with my prepping 101 guide that I wrote a while back, it’s a great starting point.

Stay safe,

Dan F. Sullivan