Thanks for your reply, Josh. It's a tough call. If you're merely dating someone, not sure if you love them or want to spend your entire life with them... Then yes, you should give it serious thought. Then again, if you decide it's best to part ways, and then nothing happens, you end up missing out on what could potentially be a superb relationship. As I said, it's a tough call. In my case, though, it's not even worth thinking about. No way in hell would I kick to the curb the person I've spent nearly two decades ( and still have a great, solid marriage) with, the person I love to death, the father of my children, someone I believe to be my soulmate. So, it really depends on your situation.

I second this! I just watched it against recently. One of my all-time favorites. Sadly, it's not a miniseries but a TV series that got canned after two seasons. But it's still worth watching. And yes, so incredibly relevant.

Hi all! I'm new here. I grew up in a European country that collapsed economically when I was a teen, so I actually have lived through a SHTF situation (and we weren't prepared, so it was tough). I've been apprehensive about our future for the past four years, but was in denial, because it just felt like God was giving me the finger. "Oh, you think you escaped? Think you're safe now? Here, have a second helping of SHTF, ha ha ha!" I refused to believe this can happen to me twice, know what I mean? But then hurricane Sandy happened, and I snapped out of my denial in a hurry. We weren't affected too badly, thank goodness, but other people were. I've been prepping ever since.

Why did I just tell you this? You'd think my past would be the perfect trump card when trying to convince and uncooperative spouse, right? WRONG! I've been married to my husband for a long time, we have two kids, and see eye to eye on just about everything... except this. He is the ultimate grasshopper. I can't count how many times I've talked to him about this, told him I see the same warning signs now as I did when I was a teen, and how we have to be prepared for anything. He agrees and says go ahead, and that he wants to be a part of it... But it's just words so far. He isn't involved. When I try to involve him most times he says it isn't the right time (which is never is, it seems). If I show him what I've bought or planning to buy, he often goes, "Do we REALLY need THAT?" Last such comment was on fuel tablets, for example. He's an optimist who loves creature comforts, so forget dragging him outdoors into a wilderness survival situation in the guise of a "camping trip". I've tried every approach sited in this article, none of it has worked. He indulges my preparations, and he's not a Scrooge, so money isn't the issue, but I can tell that he clearly thinks my prepping is just an expensive hobby. He doesn't believe anything bad will happen, and if it does it wouldn't last for more than a week or two, so that's all the emergency supplies we need. When I tell him this was exactly my parents' attitude, which resulted in us very nearly starving and freezing for good 3 YEARS, he says, "that was different" but doesn't actually explain how. If I push too hard it ends up in a fight. Grrrrr.

So bottom line is, I agree with those who say it's impossible to change someone who isn't in the right state of mind. The vast majority of them are just in denial. They are on the defensive cause they don't want to have their illusions destroyed. Maybe we get lucky and S doesn't HTF so fast, maybe things will get worse gradually. And if our spouses actually lose some of their everyday creature comforts, then they'll see just how handy our emergency supplies can be. Maybe that'll be their wakeup call. It's a difficult reality to accept, but our time would be better spent doing all the heavy lifting than wasting it trying to convince someone who simply doesn't see the world as we do.