Can You Protect Your Family?

Can you protect your family in a disaster? (photo by Laffy4k)

If there is a natural disaster or terrorist attack, can you protect your family?

If you’re cut off from the outside world with no power, food or help, can you survive? This has been on my mind ever since I read “The Road” and seeing one natural disaster after another around the world. It should also be on your mind, because protecting your family is job #1 as a man.

I’ve been writing since I was 15 years old, but only started writing about fatherhood about four years ago for MSN. I didn’t want to write goofy stuff about “where do I put all this artwork from my talented child?” or “let me tell you about how funny little Sally was at Jamba Juice.”

There’s enough of that out there. I wanted to touch on what makes a dad tick and what scares the hell out of him … while having a few laughs along the way. I don’t care what all the touchy-feely parenting books or Oprah says. The first primal responsibility every man has is to protect his family — then feed and clothe them. If you’re not doing those three things, you are not a man.

While I’ve been thinking about what we’d do in the event of a natural disaster where no one really comes to your aid (as we saw with Katrina),  I really haven’t done much about it. I mean, I’ve done the little things: we have enough water for days, batteries, some food, but have dragged my ass on the important stuff.

One thing I did do was pick up Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life, by Neil Strauss a while back. He realized that he couldn’t take care of himself and wanted to make sure he’d be a survivor if our whole system collapses, as many think it will at some point. The book is his three-year journey as he goes from snobby city boy to taking courses in wilderness survival, learning how to kill and skin a goat. He also became an EMT, learned how to shoot a gun, joined FEMA, learned Krav Maga, and he went as far to get citizenship in another country if our borders are ever locked down. And that’s not cheap.

Now, did Neil go way overboard? Absolutely – he was writing a book. But it’s a great wake-up call to all of us who depend on the system as much as we do. He writes that in a natural disaster, the government isn’t there to save you — they come in to control the situation, clean up the mess and then rebuild.

By the time they decide who’s running things, who talks to the media and who is in charge of movie night, the wounded are dead. That’s the way the system is set up. They also teach the first responders to take care of their own families first and make sure they are safe before venturing out to help others. Which makes sense.

That means you’re on your own.

I’m not saying all this stuff to scare you, but to alert you. No one has to turn into a survivalist freak, but you’re the one that has to rise to the occasion when the shit hits the fan. Is your family warm, fed and safe? Or are you panicking and looking to your neighbors for help?

Don’t be that guy.

Make sure you have enough food, water and medical supplies to take care of the ones you love. There are many places you can go to get these things, Costco has great emergency food kits, and you should look at getting a generator if you live in an area that loses power a lot. You should also have a plan.

Neil also has some good stuff on his website, including his answers to the top 10 emergency and disaster preparedness myths. In the book he goes into some pretty cool moves including escaping from the trunk of a car, turning a credit card into a knife and also how to escape from flexicuffs.

You never know when you might be have to escape like Jason Bourne.

Tagged as: My Life, Raising Kids