There has been much discussion on this board recently about keeping a low profile now, of not talking about your preps with others so as not to give them a "roadmap" to goodies, should TSHTF. But what about your children? Do you have youngsters who might be telling friends at school, "Yeah, and we've got all these beans and stuff in the basement. Toilet paper, SPAM, a whole mountain of SPAM. And my dad's got I think like this machine gun or something. And I heard my mom talking about getting some gold. I'm getting some Pokemon cards in, too. What about your family?"

It might be time to take Junior aside and say, "Loose lips sink ships."

-- Incognito (layinglow@thecrib.com), November 18, 1999

Answers

Covered.

My daughter is warned, keeps her mouth shut. Although other kids have made her aware that *their* parents are doing some prepping.....

A kid on the bus this week has been questioning her about Y2K, and were she lives......

-- mushroom (mushroom_bs_too_long@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999.

I told my kids that a year ago. When their freinds come over, I make it a POINT to show them my guns. On occasion, I have taken the more studly, bad boy types, target shooting. I instuct them NEVER to point a gun at anything, unless you intend to hit it. I then show them what HIT IT, means. Just another kind of insurance! I am pretty sure, they would think twice, before comeing to my door with evil intent.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), November 18, 1999.

Another reason to homeschool.

-- enough is (enough@enough.com), November 18, 1999.

We have kept our totally in the dark. No clues. We even feign ignorance on Y2K to them. When asked, we asked them what they thought it meant.

If the BITR happens, no harm. If TSHTF, well, they will find out after the crash.

Better safe than sorry. The absolute BEST kids sometimes have a lack of restraint.

Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), November 18, 1999.

Tell them it's a game. They have to try and persuade as many people as possible that you have trained your two dozen pit bulls to use flamethrowers. ;)

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 18, 1999.

One of my bosses was teasing me about showing up at my house if TSHTF.

I told him: People who show up at my door get... Spam. Lots & lots of spam. Hope you like spam, I told him. We get to eat the good stuff, & you get to eat spam. Spam spam spam spam lovely spam, wonderful spam.

Boss is a vegetarian, BTW.

-- spam spam spam (lovely@wonderful.spam), November 18, 1999.

(LOL, spam)

I have had a similar concern with my ancient parents who have just moved in with me. My mother she taught me everything I know about worrying , and and I assumed last winter that the media was finally about to start hyping the issue. So I thought I needed to proactively let her know I had the issue covered and not to worry about it. I also told her then that it was a security issue and not to tell anyone that I was stockpiling.

Meanwhile, I barely mentioned y2k to my dad (just a couple stray comments to let him know I thought it was serious, but not what I intended to do about it). Now that he is here, I had to give him a full tour of the house, and he has seen the stuff (sort of, he's mostly blind). I just said it was "for next year", he said he hoped the food cans wouldn't explode, and we left it at that. Meanwhile, we're practicing some meals from that stash.

I think the folks who are truly dependent on us (the very young and the very old) lose out by not really having anything they can do about it (except tell everyone else). For myself, if I have been shaken up by a recent report, then I can engage in the very therapeutic activity of another run to Sams. Probably reflects my lack of imagination, but I don't see my parents having an active role in my home's preparations, so I have stayed away from the subject.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), November 18, 1999.

Last week,the teacher asked students in my child's class to raise their hand if parents were preparing for y2k.I am glad that we had discussed it at home. All of our children know to keep quiet on the subject.Apparently,the teacher wanted to know several things...how many people in the family,what type of supplies,how long have your parents been stocking up... Later on the same day,the school coach told students that they would have a substitute teacher for P.E.in the afternoon. Said he had to stay with his small children while his wife purchased their "y2k stock".

-- Rosearbor (Rosearbor@hotmail.com), November 18, 1999.

Have a boy 7 and girl 8, been preparing since May 1998. My kids know not to say a word to anyone about what we are doing, have etc.. I don't open my garage door to advertise either. We talk to the kids about the importance of being quite about Y2K. They see where we have bought them clothes, shoes, many sizes larger than what they wear now, bought board games, books, etc., they know these items may not be available to them after Y2K, we educate them is what I trying to say. I recall my mother telling me, that turning the war her Dad wouldn't let the kids know anything about the war, because he wanted to protect them from it, but my Mom always said this bothered her and made her more afraid, than if she knew what was going on. I had a friend who's grandfather had a grocery store during the 1920's his grandfather helped people by giving them food & keeping track of who owed him what, & when his family needed food he tried to collect from the people whom he gave credit to, sad to say, to see a grown man in this day & age still angry over this, is a real eye opener. I tell my children that Y2K is a gamble, but it's a gamble that we are prepared for.

-- Judy (Dodgeball@shhhh.com), November 18, 1999.

My youngest (18) is a dgi. She met a new friend, went to visit her, came home and told me about all the food and drinks this girl's father has stocked in the basement. My stuff, on the other hand, has been brought in when she has been away, and is out of sight and under lock and key... Teen agers do talk; I remember myself at that age...

-- joannita (ajmbaird@aol.com), November 18, 1999.