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Disaster Preparedness: How to be Physically, Psychologically & Spiritually Ready for Anything {Episode 63}
79 Plays5 years ago
In this episode, Bonnie & Audrey discuss how to prepare for the unexpected. It's better to be prepared for a disaster than to be caught unawares. We discuss three ways to prepare
- Physically
- food
- shelter
- clothing
- leaving your home when necessary
2. psychologically
- preparing your mind
- helping those you can influence
- the psyche of the masses
3. Spiritual preparedness
In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, and many other disasters worldwide, this episode is intended to help you feel confident about whatever might come your way.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Jordan Page Emergency Preparedness & Food Storage Post
Life Straw (personal water purifier)
Bonnie's favorite whole grain bread recipe
Episode 34 - Kids & Emergencies
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Transcript
Introduction to Disaster Preparedness
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 63 of Outnumbered the Podcast. Today we're going to discuss with you something that's on a lot of our minds right now, how to be prepared for a disaster. We talked to you about how to physically prepare for a disaster, but we also want to discuss with you how to prepare psychologically and spiritually for anything that might come your way during unexpected events. So let's get started.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumber the Podcast. I'm Bonnie. And I'm Audrey. We're experienced moms to a combined total of 18 children. Our mission is to help overwhelmed parents find peace in parenting and humor in the chaos. Come join us as we attempt uninterrupted conversation about parenting with joy and intention.
00:00:57
Speaker
Okay. And we're going to talk today about disaster preparedness, how to get you and your kids in your home and everything ready before a disaster hits. But as usual, we're going to start off with a humor segment. So I don't know. I'm kind of a person who
00:01:19
Speaker
for various reasons that I'm not getting into right now. I don't like hand sanitizer. And this dislike of hand sanitizer was cemented through this comical little experience that I'm going to share with you now. So I don't have any hand sanitizer in my house. Don't keep it here because of my dislike for it for unexplained reasons. But one day I was babysitting and this child that I was babysitting had brought some hand sanitizer in with them.
00:01:49
Speaker
And so my, let's see, it was probably my one-year-old at the time, this was several years ago, got into this bottle of hand sanitizer and was playing with it.
00:02:04
Speaker
we found what he was doing. It was quiet, you know, that when they get into something, they're always quiet. And we found him because he screamed and started to cry. And that was what happened when he got it in his mouth, because it's so high in alcohol that it it burns. So right away, I washed off as much as I could and got him cleaned up. But he had been playing with it long enough that he was drunk.
00:02:34
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. And it's actually a side note is actually a problem in like middle schools. They won't let the kids bring in hand sanitizer because they're misusing it to get a a certain level of drunkenness during school or whatever. But anyway, the size of a one year old's body, he was drunk. And if in the future he ever
00:03:02
Speaker
decides to imbibe in alcohol, we can let him know that he's a happy drunk. He was dancing. He was running around. He was playing. He was the happiest baby that ever could be. But a couple of different things happened to him as a result of this. He lost his depth perception. And if he was, we couldn't put him like on the couch or on the bed because he would just in his little dance or walk or run, he would just go right off the edge like he had lost his depth perception.
00:03:28
Speaker
Oh my gosh, poor baby. I know. It's so stupid funny, sad funny. But then he slept. He took the most long nap, like three or four hours nap. And when he woke up, he must have had a baby hangover or a headache or something because he was so crabby and cried and cried. Poor baby. But the sad part of this is
00:03:56
Speaker
Afterwards we had to put him on a protocol of
00:04:01
Speaker
good bacteria, lots of good bacteria getting it back into him because the bacterial killers and hand sanitizer will not only kill the bad bacteria, but they'll kill the good bacteria as well. And this isn't very safe for a baby. So you have to build back up their good bacteria. It's like with probiotics and yogurt and lots of good stuff and then kind of keep them away. They're like a person with low immunity for a little while because they don't have any good bacteria.
00:04:28
Speaker
just added to my list of reasons why I don't like hand sanitizer and maybe just a little cautionary tale for those of you that might have hand sanitizer out there. Just be careful with it. Yeah, you know, I've heard a similar story before and that is just terrifying
Why Prepare for Disasters?
00:04:43
Speaker
your poor baby. Oh my gosh. I know, I know. I tell you, motherhood is all full of all sorts of weird stuff, I tell you.
00:04:52
Speaker
I know, stuff we didn't even know about till we became mothers, right? Exactly, exactly, exactly. Yeah, it's very interesting the time that we live in right now and the hot commodity that is hand sanitizer and toilet paper and all the other things that people are grabbing off shelves. But we had wanted to talk about this subject for a while and we realize now is definitely the time since we find ourselves in this weird sort of self-distancing
00:05:21
Speaker
thing. And it's a bit of a concern for many people. And it finds some of us unawares, like, whoa, what do we do now? Or unprepared, rather. Like, do we have enough food? Do we have enough water? What happens if the supply chain shuts down? All sorts of things. So the main reason we're bringing this up is simply because it's a timely topic. By no means do we want to
00:05:44
Speaker
cause fear or panic or anything like that. We actually think that those things are probably the biggest problems in a disaster type scenario is that people start to panic. And so when you're prepared, there's no fear, right? So that is the point of our episode today. We just think that it's a much better idea to be prepared than to be worried, basically.
00:06:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think we've said that about a lot of other topics we've covered in parenting. I remember saying that in our parasite episode, yuck, but it's better to know about it and be prepared than not, right? Yes, exactly. So we're going to cover this topic in three different areas, three different ways to be prepared. So you want to, of course, physically be prepared, both at home preparation, we're going to talk about, and then if you have to leave your home.
00:06:33
Speaker
The second area we're going to be covering is the psychological preparedness that we need. So preparing our mind, our emotions, helping those around us and dealing with the psyche of the masses. So like we talked about, you know, crowd panicking and even just the emotional well-being of our own families. Yeah. And then the last area we want to talk about is being spiritually prepared for any disaster that might come.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah, totally. Okay, so to dive into the area number one, that physical
Essential Skills and Resources During Disasters
00:07:05
Speaker
preparation. This has been the one that most people have been concerned about so far, right? Because it's the very first immediate need you think of. Do we have enough food? Are we going to be healthy and safe, right? Yeah. So a few tips that we've come up with are learning to cook from scratch. So if you're the type of person who either eats out or buys pre-packaged food, then when the groceries start looking empty and you're told to stay away from
00:07:29
Speaker
you know, eating establishments, you start to get a little nervous, right? Like, well, how am I going to eat? Because I don't know what to do with wheat, or I don't know what to do with a can of tomato sauce, or whatever. So most of us probably do maybe a mix of this. Like, I don't know anybody that cooks truly from scratch 100% of the time. I don't know anybody that eats out all the time. But to just expand those skills a little bit more. Like, if you normally purchase your tomato sauce, your spaghetti sauce, or whatever, maybe this is the week you learn how to make it from scratch. Totally not hard, right?
00:07:57
Speaker
or maybe you learn how to make bread with your kids or whatever it is to take those steps, take those skills a little bit further. As far as making sure that you have clean and appropriate water to drink, you can purchase the right filters, maybe alternative fuel. So we have like a sun oven you can cook in, propane, et cetera.
00:08:20
Speaker
and then also, you know, try to store a little bit more shelf-stable food, both short-term and long-term. So we, as our family personally, tries to have some long-term food, like freeze-dried type stuff, that if things get really bad, we could go to that, but then plenty of the short-term stuff too, like the stuff we eat every single day, but is only good for maybe a month or so, if that makes sense.
00:08:43
Speaker
We're at Perishables. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And if you're trying to learn a new cooking skill, I just want to say that YouTube is your best friend. Like a cooking tutorial video, there are so many on YouTube and you can find how to do just about anything you want to cook there.
00:09:02
Speaker
Okay, so I had some tips for preparing at home. Just start off by living a healthy lifestyle. Now, if you're in the middle of a disaster right now, this probably isn't very nice advice to give you, but to prepare for a future disaster. If you live a healthy lifestyle, then when a disaster shows up, you're going to be more prepared for it physically, mentally, and in about every way you can be prepared.
00:09:33
Speaker
Another suggestion I had was to FIFO your food supply. FIFO stands for first in, first out. That's how they stock grocery stores. They don't put the newest eggs in the front. They put the newest eggs in the back so that the oldest eggs get taken off the shelf first. If at home, we also can FIFO our food supply so that
00:09:53
Speaker
The oldest food gets eaten first and the newest food lasts longer. Another way to be prepared to have enough food is to plant a garden, even a raised bed or a pot of tomatoes. You'll be surprised how much one
00:10:08
Speaker
tomato plant can produce. I remember I had a bunch of tomato starts one year and I was passing them out to friends because I had everything I needed. And this sweet man that I gave to a tomato plant to kept track of how many tomatoes came off of the one plant that I gave him and it was like 200 or something. Wow. That was crazy. Yeah. So anyway, lots of food that you can get in even off one pot.
00:10:36
Speaker
Um, raise your own food or control your own food supply. Uh, of course this is easy for me to say, but this has been about at least a 10 to 15 year process for us that we can raise much of our own food with dairy animals and chickens and rabbits. Um, but if your food supply becomes compromised through whatever, um, you know, say there's a flood and crops get wiped out or something.
00:11:03
Speaker
then you can be in control of your own food supply, which is important. Clean water is very important, and you can even get those little filters that you put in a water bottle so they can purify and clean water that is not clean just as you're drinking it. And then have on hand any supplements or medicines, like a stock of them, maybe when you
00:11:30
Speaker
I was looking at some of Jordan Page's emergency preparedness and food storage information. She's really good about that. She's been doing it for years and has tons of resources. We'll link to a really nice post of hers in the show notes.
00:11:47
Speaker
uh, little saying that she buys one for now and two for later. So that would be on non-perishables like toilet paper or vitamins or, you know, whatever, whatever that's not going to perish, you can buy one for now and two for later and then always be prepared.
00:12:06
Speaker
Right? And I understand that the idea of food storage and water storage to the average Joe who's never thought about it can seem extremely overwhelming, especially if you have a lot of little mouths to feed, but it really doesn't have to be. So we personally have been storing food our entire married lives. So 16 years.
00:12:25
Speaker
And so we're kind of old hat at it, but it's so easy to just start with one or two things. Let's say your family eats a lot of noodles. And so you just want to be sure you have enough noodles to get you through a month. Then every time you go to the store, instead of buying one or two packs, you buy three or four.
00:12:41
Speaker
And noodles, they're like $1 or $2 a box, right? So with just a few dollars here and there, you can stock up. And then the trick is, every time you use one, you repurchase it instead of waiting until you're all the way out, right? So generally, people look at their pantry and say, oh, I still have five boxes of noodles. I'm good. I don't have to buy any. But the alternative thinking is, no, I used a box this week. I need to replenish that. And then you go out and buy it again. So there are a million different systems of doing this. In fact, if you fall down the food storage rabbit hole online, you might not come out for a while.
00:13:10
Speaker
because there are so many resources, so many. But you can just start very simple with just accumulating the foods you eat over and over, especially canned goods that last for months and months at a time, you know, and without too much additional costs. So that's just a little tip for you. So another part of preparing ourselves physically is preparing our home.
00:13:32
Speaker
So specifically shelter and clothing needs, right? You know that at this point we're gonna bring up learning to sew, right? Because Audrey and I are pretty happy with the fact that we can clothe our family, you know? Everybody just needs to know that, it's so empowering. Yeah, and it's so fun, it's so fun. And even if you never get to the point where you can sew a garment from scratch, even just being able to do some alterations or some mending is huge. So when your kid gets a hole in their pants, if it's difficult to find,
00:14:01
Speaker
new clothes or, you know, supply chains messed up or whatever, or you just don't want to spend the money, you can go put a patch on those pants instead of just putting them in the garbage can. So it makes you so much more self-reliant. I love it. I'd love to make things work for multiple kids. So when one kid grows out of pants, then we cut them off and make them shorts. And then when they grow out of those shorts, then we pass them on to the next kid. And then when they, you know, you can get the ideas. Just reusing things until you just wear them completely out.
00:14:32
Speaker
I also love to share tips for keeping your life moving when the power goes out. So if you've ever had the power grow out, which I'm sure we all have, it is shocking how many things you do on a regular basis that cannot be done when the power is out, like cooking dinner as per usual or plugging in your phone or turning on the computer, all these things that it sounds silly like duh, but
00:14:57
Speaker
It's kind of a shocker when you're used to having electricity at your beck and call all the time. So it's important to think about these things. Do you have a stock of candles in your house somewhere? So that if it's dark and you don't wanna go to bed at 6.30, you guys could stay up and play games by candlelight or whatever or find pajamas. Do you have alternative heating or cooling methods for when the power goes out? Battery operated flashlights, any number of things that would be essential if that electricity wasn't working.
00:15:26
Speaker
Yeah, those are all great tips. Keeping candles on hand, yeah. Like, we can use our cell phones for flashlights, but then we can't recharge our phones, so we gotta, you know, think through that kind of thing.
00:15:40
Speaker
All right, then I've had some tips for preparing for disasters at home shelter and clothing needs. Be sure to think about special things that kids need, like diapers. You don't want to run out of diapers unless you can sew cloth diapers. You want to think about warm or cool clothing or weather. Like if it's in winter, do you have blankets on hand or is it going to be hot? You know, what can you do?
00:16:08
Speaker
to keep kids cool, maybe in hot climates if the air conditioning is out. And then you want to be sure you have first aid supplies on hand. We talked a lot about what is in our first aid kits on episode 34.
00:16:22
Speaker
in preparing for kids in emergencies. But if there's a disaster and you can't get out or a supply chain is interrupted, it would be good to have your first aid kit stocked and not be out of something. I suppose this could be another area where you stock up with five ahead of time and then just replace one as you use it and be prepared that way. And then another good thing to keep on hand, shelter and clothing,
00:16:52
Speaker
Home needs is batteries, different sized batteries for different things that use batteries. Because if the electricity is out, you will be using batteries. Right. True. True. Like I keep thinking in Arizona, if our power goes up for a prolonged period of time during the summer, we're toast, like literally.
00:17:09
Speaker
So like battery operated vans would be really nice, you know, so anyway, yeah, great, great thoughts. And so the next step in next area in talking about physical preparation is to prepare to leave your home.
Preparing for Quick Evacuations
00:17:23
Speaker
So luckily,
00:17:25
Speaker
our current disaster is just the fact that we're stuck at home. Like it's kind of awesome in a lot of ways, not for the countries that are on major lockdown, but for us here in the US, things are still pretty easy going and we're just asked to not be in a lot of areas with a lot of people. So we just have to prepare our homes. But if you are required to evacuate your home, then things get a little bit trickier, right? So if a flood is coming, a hurricane, tornado, fire, any number of things where your home is not a safe place to be,
00:17:54
Speaker
you need to be prepared to leave and sometimes very quickly, right? So in our family, we have prepared these go bags or sometimes we call them 72-hour kits with enough supplies to last our family for 72 hours or thereabouts, a couple of days, right? So that if we had to just hop in the car and take off, we would just grab these bags and be ready to go. Now, full disclosure, it's been a couple of years since I looked in ours.
00:18:18
Speaker
My original goal was to look at them every six months or so. But then I started having so many kids and quickly that I couldn't keep up on the right season and sizes of clothes. So instead we just decided to buy an outfit of clothes in every size, gender neutral, and pack it with that. So that way- Good idea.
00:18:39
Speaker
I don't have to worry, oh, do I have a girl's pair of shorts in there? No, size 10. No, it's just in there. There's something for you to wear. If it's a disaster, you're not going to care if it's a girl or boy or black or pink or whatever. And then what else is in there? Okay, so copies of important documents. So like your homeowner's insurance could be very important if you are evacuated for a hurricane, you come back and your home is gone, right?
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah. Copies of passports, IDs, vaccine schedules, doctors, numbers, any number of things that you think you might need out of your home. Copies of social security cards, anything that could get destroyed and you would need in the future. Phone numbers in case something happens to your phone, obviously none of us know how to call anyone except 911 because
00:19:21
Speaker
because we can't remember phone numbers anymore. It's also helpful to have some cash in there, as well as some shelf-stable food, granola bars, powdered milk, anything that could keep you guys alive for a couple of days. So that also seems kind of overwhelming, but can be put together fairly simply, a little at a time, into just basic backpacks and stored in an attic or something.
00:19:43
Speaker
Right. Those are all awesome things and it makes me feel very unprepared because I don't have some of those stuff. Some of those things ready to go. Yeah. My list of things to have prepared if you have to leave home for, you know, forest, fire, flood, whatever, hurricane.
00:20:00
Speaker
Passports, a travel food supply, especially keeping in mind kids that have allergies or special food needs that you might not be able to get on the road. Keep your vehicle in good condition. Maybe it's not full of gas.
00:20:19
Speaker
But is it 10,000 miles overdue for an oil change? Has the check engine light been on for three months? Just keep your vehicle in good condition. Someday you'll be really thankful that you did. Maybe some pre-planned routes. So if this road is flooded,
00:20:37
Speaker
What's an alternative road? Be familiar with some routes both locally to you and then maybe a little farther away. As everyone was fleeing hurricane, which hurricane was it? Katrina or something? All the roads were jammed and nobody could go.
00:20:53
Speaker
because they only knew the main interstate route to go. But if people that knew alternative routes, they could go. So just pre-planned routes, maybe your first choice and your second choice. And then again, I had cash on my list as well. Cash would go a long way where a check or a credit card or whatever else might not go. Although you should have some credit cards as well for on the road in places that are a little sketchy and you don't want to use your bank card or something.
00:21:22
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah, one final thought that I forgot to mention is making a plan with your loved ones on how to reconnect. So that was another big problem in Katrina and other disasters like that where people would evacuate and go to all different states and no one knew how to find people, especially if cell phones weren't working or had been damaged. So an example might be, let's say you want to make sure that your extended family can check on you. So you pick someone who lives far away.
00:21:49
Speaker
that you have their phone number written down or memorized and that's who you check in with. So let's say, Audrey, your family has to evacuate. You've told your family ahead of time, you're going to be calling your mom or you're going to be calling your sister who lives three states away to check in if a disaster happens. And you do this way ahead of time, obviously. So then everybody knows, oh, we don't know where Audrey's family is. We need to check on them. They call your sister and she's the hub of information. So that's just a thought there too.
00:22:13
Speaker
Final thoughts on the physical preparation, you guys. This can seem so overwhelming and so scary, but it doesn't have to be. Just a little at a time, we can prepare ourselves. I recommend thinking about the things you run out of first, okay? So what prompts you to go to the store? For us, it's cheese.
00:22:28
Speaker
Every time we run out of cheese, I'm like, okay, time for the store because my family goes through a lot of cheese. Cheese isn't something you can always store, but actually there is shelf-stable cheese. So if that's something that's important to me, maybe I stock up on some of that. Maybe it's milk for you. Maybe it's diapers. Maybe you can have a little bit of a stockpile of something that you find yourself running to the store for all the time. Or perhaps you just want to get
00:22:49
Speaker
more versed in making meals that do not require lots of fresh items that might be more rare to find in a disaster. So just step by step, make a few more preparations for yourself. Don't go crazy. Don't panic. And don't stress yourself out. But any little bit of preparation now can help you in a future scary time.
00:23:10
Speaker
Right. And I did want to make a little final note, or this really isn't about physical preparedness, but I did want to say that in this month's Patreon episode, Bonnie and I are sharing specifics about what we have done to be prepared for the current coronavirus disaster and how it's affecting our families. So be sure you're following us on Patreon for that.
00:23:34
Speaker
Okay, the next thing we're going to talk about is being prepared psychologically.
Psychological Preparedness for Disasters
00:23:39
Speaker
And like we said, there's three different areas of this that we're going to talk about. And the first one is preparing yourself psychologically. So internal preparation. Now, because we have children and because most of you, our audience has children, we need to be the calm parent figure. If we are freaking out, our kids are going to freak out. It's going to have an incredible effect on them too.
00:24:04
Speaker
be the calm parent figure. Another thought I had was to expect the unexpected so that it won't throw you for a loop. Just, you know, something unexpected comes your way. Okay. Well, I knew something unexpected was going to happen or many unexpected things were going to happen because that's
00:24:22
Speaker
Like you don't ever expect a disaster. You don't wake up in the morning and say, oh hey, I think we're going to have a disaster today. A disaster is unexpected, so be prepared for lots of unexpected things during the disaster.
00:24:38
Speaker
We've talked a lot, a lot in our episodes about being confident in your own brand of motherhood. But at a time like this as well, be confident in your own research, in your own solutions that you come up with, in your own intuition. Because if you move forward confidently with confidence, then those that you love, your kids, those that you can have an influence over, they can be confident in your research and solutions and intuition as well.
00:25:08
Speaker
Right. My thoughts on this internal psychological preparation is that when you do put forth an ounce of prevention, then you get a pound of cure, right? So just what we're talking about right now to just start to create a little bit of a stockpile or to create a little bit of preparation mentally ahead of time can go a long way in keeping you calm when something like this actually happens, right? Instead of going, oh my gosh, I never anticipated this.
00:25:33
Speaker
We know it's a crazy time right now. Disasters are happening, whether it's a disease or a fire or whatever, to just be prepared mentally that, hey, bad things are going to happen and it's OK. Just because we can't control them doesn't mean that we need to panic. I personally, at this time, I think I've mentioned in previous episodes that I'm not a big fan of watching the news because I let it worry me necessarily. That's just my own
00:25:59
Speaker
fault, I guess. But I've noticed that in times like this, I do pay a little bit more attention to the news, but without believing everything that I hear. That makes sense. So I prefer to consult professionals for guidance. So I'll listen to what the news is saying about, for example, what we're going through right now, this coronavirus thing. And then I will go research medical articles that are telling me the cold hard facts. And I go, okay, so this is a concern, but this is not. I'm not going to just fall prey to every scary thing that comes across my TV or radio.
00:26:27
Speaker
and to not give into that panic like you're saying. That is so true because if you look at how much what is being said in the news has changed just in the course of one week like you and I were talking before we came on the air that it seems like it's been a month since we've talked but it's like the news has changed so much in the course of a week what they're saying about the same disaster event that you really can't rely on it too much so yes definitely definitely do your own research.
00:26:59
Speaker
Okay, the next area that we wanted to talk about being psychologically prepared is helping prepare those you can control and influence. So this means your kids, this means your family, this means others that you maybe have influence over.
00:27:14
Speaker
So with your kids, you want to talk through different scenarios with the kids. You know, like we talked about how to be prepared to leave home to evacuate in an emergency. Well, let's talk it through with kids because then they won't be so scared.
00:27:29
Speaker
You know, you talk about having a fire in your home and that is a super scary thing to a kid. But if you go through, if you make a plan and you do a fire drill a couple of times and your kids are prepared for that, then it's not as scary anymore. It's still serious, but it's not as scary. So talk through different scenarios with your kids just to get them thinking about different things that could happen.
00:27:53
Speaker
Just in general, you can't really do this in the middle of a disaster, but we're talking about being prepared for disaster in the future. Raise independent thinkers. Raise them not to be so reliant on the thoughts and the news and the ideas of others, but raise them to think independently so that they're doing their own research and relying on their own opinion and coming up with their own conclusions so that they're not so dependent on
00:28:21
Speaker
what's coming out of the rest of the world. Yeah, exactly. And like you were saying earlier, I think that it is important for us to protect our kids without raising ignorant kids, if that makes sense, right? So one of my tips in this area is to inspire our kids by talking about what they can control, right? So let's take our current example.
00:28:45
Speaker
Instead of talking about how this disease is spreading and it's scary and what are we going to do, we say, you know what we're going to do? We've been taught to avoid crowds, so we're not going to go to the movies like we planned to. Instead, we're going to have a fun movie night in the backyard when dad comes home tonight, et cetera, because we're doing our part to limit the spread of this disease.
00:29:02
Speaker
We are going to come up with a new recipe that we can use these old beans for because they've been sitting on our pantry forever and we haven't used them and that's doing our part to stay away from a busy store or whatever. And you empower your kids with the knowledge that they can fix things even in a scary time. Secondly, I would encourage moms and dads to not dwell on unnecessary disasters or like unlikely scenarios is what I'm trying to say.
00:29:27
Speaker
you know, in the desert, we're not going to talk a lot about hurricanes. Oh my gosh, if there was a hurricane, because we're not going to get a hurricane in Phoenix. But we can prepare them for things that are more likely to happen. So if this happened, what would we do rather than, you know, because as moms, I'm sure every one of you
00:29:45
Speaker
is like me sometimes where your mind just spins and what if this and what if this. The obligation and responsibility to keep your family safe is overwhelming sometimes, but we don't need to pass that on to our kids by projecting it, especially when a lot of it is totally unlikely. Just keep them safe and happy.
00:30:03
Speaker
Right, right. I did have another little thought on this is that limit kids exposures to the scary news and be their newscasters. So maybe, you know, you check the news or watch the news, whatever your news source is, when they're not around.
00:30:19
Speaker
when they're there, you be the new source of information for them so that the scary things like don't even come in to their radar, but you can present it to them in a way that you know will be helpful to them. And then friends and family, especially older people, are kind of susceptible to scams or myths or rumors.
00:30:41
Speaker
And maybe we can help dispel those myths for our friends and family and maybe be a little more logical and help show them and talk them through that some things are just, they're just people trying to scam. I know that in every disaster, there's people who are trying to take advantage of it. And so we can help people like our friends and family that we can influence as well.
00:31:06
Speaker
Yeah, and along those lines, I would also say that in every disaster, there are helpers as well, right? Like I've heard that saying, when bad things happen, look for the helpers to really inspire you that the world is still a good place. So you can do that. You can watch the news and look for those fun, exciting, kind of miraculous stories where people have helped each other and share those with your kids.
00:31:26
Speaker
An example I'll share is there was just a tornado recently in the Nashville area, really close to where my sister-in-law lives. And I had shared it with my kids and we had prayed for the area and my sister-in-law's house was totally unscathed, which was wonderful and we were so grateful. And then she started sharing some pictures of the damage that had been done very close by, but she was sharing some miracles too. And I shared those with my kids and they were just so amazed that, wow, what a miracle that those people survived and that someone helped these people out, et cetera.
00:31:53
Speaker
help them look for the good even in scary uncertain times. Right, right. I saw a cute video during our time. They have shut down the zoos, a lot of zoos. And somebody, a zookeeper posted a little cute video clip online where they had let the penguins out and wander around the zoo. And the penguins were just going from exhibit to exhibit, just looking at all these different things in the zoo. And it was so cute.
00:32:21
Speaker
And that was something I shared with my kid and I didn't share, you know, with them other news stories that were more scary. But that one was kind of a cute one for them to see. OK, maybe you'll have to link to that one because that one sounds adorable. The Penguin patrons. OK.
00:32:36
Speaker
Okay, so the last bit we want to share on the psychological aspect of things is preparing for this psychology of
Media's Role and Mass Hysteria During Disasters
00:32:42
Speaker
the masses. Like we mentioned that there's sometimes mass hysteria and panic, false information. For example, here in Arizona, we have just a handful of confirmed cases of coronavirus, but the stores are already empty, the lines at Costco are a mile long. And I understand some people are just trying to prepare, but some people are feeding into
00:32:59
Speaker
you know, this hysteria that's really unnecessary. And so we're going to teach our children and those around us to not feed into that by not believing or reposting everything that we read or see, right? To maybe do due diligence, figure out if there's any truth to it, and not keep posting sensational articles just
00:33:19
Speaker
to be sensational, right? To be prepared to protect the innocent people that you love. Right. And also you want to keep in mind that the media makes money by being sensational. And sometimes I almost feel sorry for the media. You know, like they have to keep those television cameras rolling 24 seven and they find some poor person and get their hysterical story.
00:33:43
Speaker
And another thing you can do is look for themes and proceed with caution. So sometimes one media channel will say something and then it's picked up by other media channels and it goes on and on and then you just wait a day or two and oops that thing wasn't true. I know a lot of that happened during the last
00:34:02
Speaker
Hurricane Katrina or whatever the last hurricane was, there was a lot of things that proved to not be true. So, you know, just wait 24 hours and then and then see. But yeah, the psychology of the masses is it's kind of a scary thing because the big thing is that people are scared and they're reacting out of that. And so if we can just not be scared ourselves, then then we can protect ourselves and those we love from those who are scared. Right.
00:34:32
Speaker
Okay, so we are going to move on from this psychological and mental preparation to the spiritual preparation. And this is my favorite part, although this is definitely something that needs to be done ahead of time before things get scary. Not to say you can't continue to prepare yourself spiritually, but it really helps to be aware of this ahead of time. The one thing I wanted to share at this point was that there's not really anything to fear, but fear itself, right? We've all heard that line before. Fear itself is terrifying.
00:35:00
Speaker
because it creates hysteria. People panic. People do dumb things when they're afraid. If we focus on how wonderful life is, because it is, life is wonderful. Growing up and creating families and working and doing something you love, so much of life is wonderful. But it's also hard, and we'll see plenty of both as we live, right? But in order to keep the peace in my home, I choose to focus on the good and to focus on
00:35:30
Speaker
the peace that I find even when I'm scared. And in order to raise these spiritually resilient kids that I want to raise, it's important for me to focus on this day in, day out, the peace, the peace, the peace that we're seeking. And the peace just comes from God. That can't be found in the media. That's for sure. They're not trying to bring anybody peace. So, so true. Yeah. Yeah. My thoughts on spiritual preparation are that
00:35:55
Speaker
A deep, strong connection to God is super important to me, and for each of my family and my loved ones, but before the disaster arrives. So you have to be prepared that in a disaster, people die, and you might die, and have you asked yourself the big questions of life.
00:36:18
Speaker
what is the meaning of life and what happens after you die and all those. And we are planning a future episode on preparing kids for death and loss and mourning and how to prepare kids. But at this point, I just wanted to say to as part of spiritual preparation, you know, ask yourself the big questions of life and come to peace with some of the answers because
00:36:39
Speaker
The end of life for everybody, ultimately, the end of this existence that we know here on the earth is death. And so, you know, we have to ask ourselves, and then what? So, yeah, spiritually, to help us prepare spiritually for any disaster.
00:36:56
Speaker
Yeah. And as a final thought, I just want to say talking about disasters just by nature sounds very doom and gloom sometimes.
Spiritual Preparation for Challenging Times
00:37:03
Speaker
And so we apologize for that. We're not trying to bring everybody down. But this is really what life is about, right? Like we say, there's good, there's bad, there's scary, there's wonderful, there's peaceful aspects of life, and there's harrowing, terrifying aspects of life. But with a family, if you personally are spiritually grounded and you teach your kids to be the same,
00:37:24
Speaker
You'll be fine. You really will. And we try not to get terribly spiritual on this podcast, but it's very important for both of us to share that we believe life isn't the end and that there's so much peace to be found in understanding that and knowing that we're meant to have joy even when scary times hit. So that's
00:37:47
Speaker
That's the point of this episode, not to be doom and gloom, but to just say, hey, we're going to be OK. And we need to just reflect that peace and happiness to our children. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Those are basically my final thoughts, too. It's better to be prepared than to be scared. And being prepared helps you feel confident for whatever comes your way. So we have those recommendations for you. We're going to link to Jordan Page's fun, cheap or free emergency prep.
00:38:17
Speaker
and how to do it, and then that cute little penguin video, and we're gonna link some of our favorite food storage resources on Amazon and other places.
00:38:27
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning in. Did you know you can help the podcast in several ways? First up, we're on Patreon, and there are three different levels to support us there. Just head to patreon.com slash outnumbered. Next up, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a written review on iTunes. It helps other parents find the podcast and receive the help you're enjoying. And finally, you can follow us on Instagram at Outnumbered the Podcast. We're always having fun over there too.
00:38:53
Speaker
As usual, if you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, you can reach us at OutnumberedThePodcast at gmail.com. Thanks for all your support. We'll talk to you next week. I don't know what's up with my mic. It is. Yeah, usually your line is a lot bigger. So in your system preferences, in your sound, can you turn up your input or your output volume?
00:39:19
Speaker
I never messed with it, so I don't know why it would be... Yeah, but you have nine kids, Bonnie.
00:39:26
Speaker
Well, they're not supposed to touch anything in here. Yeah, I know. My kids, too. But every time I come back to my sewing machine, all my settings are all messed up and my computer, everything's turned around. I can't tell you how many times my sewing machine has gotten sharpied. And I'm like, are you kidding me right now? My husband was so mad when he saw it. I'm a little bit more mellow because I see the destruction that they wreak on my house. But he's like, $1,000. I'm like, it's OK, honey. I know. It's OK. I know. They ruin everything.
00:39:55
Speaker
It could just be wiped off. My two-year-old was thinking that every time I sewed, she had to sew with me and she would get her little scraps out of my trash and she would sit in front of the sewing machine and push the fabric through under the presser foot and she would go...
00:40:15
Speaker
And I kept telling her it was OK if I was there, but not to be playing with that. Well, sure enough, the other day she was sewing without me and she came running screaming because her finger was bloody. She somehow got it caught on the needle. No, poor thing. Yep. Yeah. Now you learn. OK, I'm seeing a massive volume, but I'm not seeing a volume. Hold on, let me Google this.