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Slide 1: ==== ==== Family safety and survival starts in the home, must travel with you, and even includes your pets! www.familysurvivalsolutions.com ==== ==== As a parent or head of family, or even as an elder sibling, you are likely to be assaulted by feelings of fear, guilt and stress in family survival situation. You will feel responsible for getting everyone to safety, and combined with the physical strain, this stress could bring you to the brink of despair and hopelessness. What you must remember, however, is that your children's greatest need is to see you in control of the situation and to see you as someone to rely on and trust. If you give in to negative feelings, you will destroy not only the chances of your own safety, but compromise that of your children as well. It is immensely important to first of all take your children in confidence: if you try to conceal the situation or the threats you face, they will most likely become even more confused, aggravated and afraid. Explain the situation while maintaining the impression that all is not lost and that you can and will find a way out. Emphasize the need for their help and cooperation, and finally, answer their questions as well as you can. Once they fully understand the situation, children tend to cope more easily than adults do, and that can be a huge help in lowering the panic level of your family. Secondly, discuss with your family and come up with a survival plan, dividing the tasks into little steps that can be accomplished by working together. Delegate tasks to the children and assign responsibilities. This will not only raise their esteem but will also make them focus on the goal of survival and distract them from discomfort, fear and panic. Also, try to keep up a playful, adventurous spirit at all times. This is far, far, easier said than done in an actual survival situation, but if you manage to do it, it will lessen negative feelings and will give you greater energy to spend on finding a way to escape. Try to raise an adventurous, tough spirit in the children and make them feel good about themselves for making it so far. This will ensure that they keep going and do not lose hope. Further, ask them for ideas that can help you solve your immediate needs. Children have creative minds and often come up with brilliant ideas, so enlist their help in thinking up plans for survival, signaling or escape. Once again, this will motivate them and maintain their natural high spirits, and give you maximum chances of making it out of danger. However, while it is the psychological component that is most important in a family survival situation, immediate needs must be taken care of. Children will look up to you and expect you to provide food, water, shelter and security like you have for all their lives, so you will have to take care of these needs. Whenever you plan an outdoor activity with children, make sure you take emergency supplies and survival handbooks with you, so that you would know how to find food and water and what actions to avoid. Explain to the children the importance of avoiding dirty water or poisonous plants and foods, and teach them as much as you know about dealing with the wilderness.
Slide 2: This will reduce their chances of accidentally putting themselves in even more danger, for instance by taking in poisonous food or by provoking a dangerous animal. While food is usually not of crucial importance in a survival situation, children need to eat in order to retain their spirits and their natural energy and enthusiasm. Water, of course, is an obvious necessity, so that too must be found and purified as often as possible. As far as shelter is concerned, try to find as spacious a natural shelter as possible, and use blankets, sheets and whatever other "homely" items you have to make it comfortable and inviting. This will create the impression of home for the children, and hence keep them feeling safe and contented despite the immense danger surrounding them. The bottom line, therefore, with children is this: keep them motivated, fed and watered, and happy, and they will be an asset to you in your struggle for survival, and could help you significantly in saving all your lives. I am the author of various health, fitness and family survival books. You can read some of my posts on survival at: http://www.survivalskillsoutdoors.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brandon_Johanson ==== ==== Family safety and survival starts in the home, must travel with you, and even includes your pets! www.familysurvivalsolutions.com ==== ====