I am impatient with laziness and can be pretty blunt when confronted with it. And yet the blunt approach is not always the best approach especially when family is involved. That said, it is IMPERATIVE that you work this stuff out NOW, not when TSHTF. It is also imperative that you dispel beliefs and manage expectations NOW. If people think of your place as a bunker or retreat or food factory that needs to be managed NOW. Without managing it now when food becomes scarce they are going to be sure that you have extra..you do now so why not then? AND they will tell other people and that will bring more mouths to feed and that word will spread like wildfire.

Like many families most of our extended family does not prep. We have tried to get them to see the logic many times to no end. Therefore I wanted a last time “on the record” treaties of where they fit in. Had it been solely up to me I would have sat them down and told them that our place is not a hotel for lazy asses so don’t show up. But yet they are family and I have a wife more tactful than I so we came up with a letter that we hand delivered to them. It does not preclude them from showing up and us making the decision to accept them even unprepared but I hope that it has tactfully told them the ultimate truth that it is NOT the responsibility for other people to do their work for them.

The letter follows, constructive criticism welcome and if you feel that replicating parts or all of it for your situation would be helpful be my guest with no need to attribute it to me.