I also want to add one non-biographical comment about city-kids: sure alot of teens and twenty-somethings in Toronto fit the stereotype of being materialistic, money-driven, short-sighted, with a strong sense of entitlement, and no idea of what a day of hard labor is like ["Mom, can you buy me the new iPhone? My old own is slow and ugly!"]... Toronto-kids can surprise you with their ideas about prepping.

Having lived out in the country consistently from spring-2010 to winter 2011/12, I got mildly out of touch with average Toronto youth. While back in the city this winter, I've been working at a ski hill, where the average employee is around 18-22 years old, with some as young as 16, decent amount around my age, and very few over 30.

I throw OPSEC out the window and talked about prepping with co-workers every chance I get, and, wow: pretty much every young person I talk to about the topic doesn't take much convincing that prepping is a sane and sensible thing to do. Most didn't know that the city only has three days of food, and admitted surprise at my description of what could happen if the electricity grid permanently went down; but some didn't need me to lay it out for them, but already had an idea
Meanwhile a large % of my coworkers were interested in the gardening/homesteading/eco-village stuff I've been up to - not saying they wanted to dive into something similar soon, but, still they and recognized the value of eating good, real food.
Overall most of them seem to have at least a humble, if not gloomy, opinion of where our economy and standard of living is heading.
I think the only thing holding back most teens and twenty-somethings from being true preppers is: a mild-wake-up-call, which could come in the form of information/facts about the reality of our supply chain, grid, economy, standard of life; and, inspiration that solutions do exist, and you don't need to be rich to prep.

Hi Adamandah;

At 61, I am older than dirt and my wife is slightly younger. Our youngest daughter is 19 and is clear that self reliance is her best chance for a happy future, but she is not part of the preppers network. Our other kids are too busy playing, partying, lusting after $75,000.00 pickup trucks, or caught up in the work a day world. It is embarrassing to me to think that we might have taught them everything they know. It is my hope that we are leading by example now. For the last 40 years, my favorite book has been 'The Have More Plan', and still is. (It is available free on line in pdf format) Some dreams never die.

Congrats on becoming parents. It was the best thing we ever did. After we finished sewing our wild oats, 😆 we showed the kid how to plant peas, beans and Quinoa. Those times will always be a part of their life and will serve them well one day.

I'm 55, my hunny is 55, we were born a week apart in the same hospital in Hamilton.
He grew up poor on the Bruce Peninsula hunting, fishing, taxidermy, the whole nine yards. Necessity was the impetus behind his upbringing of thrift and prepping.
I grew up in Hamilton, my folks lived through the depression. But we were suburbanites, so there was nothing preppy about our life, other than the odd tomato plant, minimal composting and recycling.
Combined, we work well together - I am the bookish half who is intent on learning as much as we need to know, to be prepared - he is the mechanic/carpenter. We both garden, fish, forage, do the firewood, can and dry product.
My kids and hunny's kids, all four of them, 'get it'. They are in their 20's. They all say they are just going to come HERE when the shtf - with their partners and any grandkids (only 1 so far). Lucky us! WE have to get them contributing, if they are serious.....
....good thought!
regards, Queenie

I'm 47. I was born in the NWT. There were few stores. What is one persons survival situation, is another persons way of life and lifestyle. Power and technology are wonderful things, but most city folk can only speculate what they would do without it.

I live just outside of Edmonton and spend most of my spare time and vacation in places with little or no amenities. Even our music requires no power as we're acoustic musicians. If i ever have to leave my home. I'm simply going camping and hunting, maybe for a year or two, maybe longer. I'm ready for a nice long holiday.

Re: How old are you?
http://internationalpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=684&p=5865#p5865

Hey,

I'm 25 going on 26 in a few months just graduated college with a diploma in marketing, took sometime off between high school and going to college did the party/drinking since I figured have fun while I'm still young and have some money. Before the kids start coming or working a steady job. Luckily that time off made me smarter since I worked basically a bunch of jobs and encountered a wide variety of people and characters, one thing I surprised to find alot of people know a collapse is going to happen but they feel like they can't really do anything about it.

I was nonetheless dumbfounded since being prepared was worn into to me when I was in the Beavers and Scouts. I always had a strong situational awareness, knowing the moods people where in, exits, potential problems. And to me being prepared mentally to overcome adversity will give you the will to survive, read dozens of survival books and frontier stories. People have gone through this before and we will survive it!

I'm 39, grew up in the country (NW Ontario) but all we grew was hay and rocks... so no skills were acquired.
She's 32 and grew up in the city but her father was from the old country, so she was butchering her 'pets' in the backyard growing up... a bit traumatic I think.

I've only learned about hunting and meat processing in the last few years from a cousin who also lives out here in Southern Alberta.

I've been prepping for years without realizing it; buying all the canned salmon, pasta sauce, peanut butter and pasta I could carry whenever it was on sale. It is more focussed and effective over the last 2 years as I became more familiar with the prepping concept.

We are moving into a new home at the end of the month and hope to take advantage of the greater space and larger backyard to get more serious about storage and gardening.

Im 25 years of age, born and raised in the middle of the bush. I'm no stranger to self reliance having been raised in a very small hunting/mining community, with no municipal water supply, an out house (shit shack), and unreliable electricity. Moved to a larger city in order to go to school and be socialized as there were no kids in that community. After being a way from my home town for almost 17 years I'm looking forward to moving out onto farm land with my family and become self reliant once again. Work is becoming harder to come by as the market becomes more competitive making my apprenticeship much more difficult to complete, jumping from one contractor to another with large gaps of no work in between. I think the most important asset to being a prepper is knowledge, I believe it is better to know how to replenish your food supply rather then stock pilling.

I believe that prepping is an essential skill that has been lost over generations due to the convenience of industry and corporations. The easy way is not always the best way, we no longer control the quality of the product we consume which I think is one of the major problems we face today. It will be nice to harvest, prepare, store my own product and know what my family and I are consuming is good quality, unmodified, fresh produce. I know that prepping is not easy or cheap especially when you are just beginning but i know the payoff is worth it. It's nice to see that prepping is starting to grow and more people every day are taking notice.

Amen JoelLM!!

I'm 39 and my wife is 35. I'm the prepper in training though. She thinks I'm something. Have 2 daughters, 10 and 5.

I've been reading survivalist magazines and books for quite a few years. I haven't had the chance or time till now to get to it. Now is better then never, right?

I grew up on farms till my early teen years, one a very small farm and one a large commercial type - grapes and cereals, large machines and all that special jazz. As most kids, once Atari and arcades and I got introduced I couldn't get off the farm fast enough. Now I would go to great lengths to get back to one. I've always had an outdoorsman streak in me - fishing, camping especially and recently hunting and small farming. Lots to learn, lots to do to get practice skills.

Runs with Scissors

I'm 58. Hubby is 56. We were both city raised, although I was an army brat, so it was different cities. Hubby learned self sufficiency at a young age due to neglect.

Second marriage for us both. Between us we have 5 kids - 30 plus to 24 years old, and 3 grandchildren. We are also raising one of our granddaughters.

As a child of the 60's and a parent in the 70's, I learned to can food and make things. Practical and part of the culture in my group of friends. Hubby is a carpenter and can take apart everything and put it back together. We got together in our late 30's. About 11 years ago we moved from downtown Vancouver to a little town on Cape Breton Island. A bit of a culture shock, but not horrendous. 🙂

I've been disabled with chronic pain for the past 4 years and hubby's job is ending. I've been pulling out all the stops, gathering up and dusting off my old skills and learning new. It feels a bit weird to be "going back to the land" (a very 1970s thing) at this time of my life. lol

I am 66 and still Kicking up at 5 and to bed at 11 = Put 15 cord of wood away for the up coming winter. My son was over yesterday and he told me that I work to hard But never offered to help.
The new Kids of today do not know what work is lol

I am 66 and still Kicking up at 5 and to bed at 11 = Put 15 cord of wood away for the up coming winter. My son was over yesterday and he told me that I work to hard But never offered to help.
The new Kids of today do not know what work is lol

Roger that Hunter....

I see the last post was nearly 3 months ago, but thought I'd chime in for the fun of it. I'm 31 and single, with two kids (9 and almost 5). I know of a few people my age who get the whole idea of preparing, but don't do it themselves.

46! Ouch!