Book Review - Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst-Case Scenarios by Lisa Bedford

Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst-Case Scenarios by Lisa Bedford

This book is timely, as I'd become a first time mum this summer. And we live in an area where tornado is a possibly, as well as snow storms in the winter time. But this book goes more into just natural disaster survival - it also talks about "survival finances" (if losing a job) and "essentials for safety and security" (personal safety).

I have always wanted to more prepared (been meaning to get that survival kit, or first aid kit, for years...) but well, just never got around to it. So I'll call myself an extreme beginner when it comes to disaster preparedness. The intention is there, just no follow through... 

I admit that this book is not something you'd want to read cover-to-cover in one setting. You'd probably feel overwhelmed, and well, panicked (what if something happens tomorrow? I AM SO NOT PREPARED!!) Even the author suggested to "browse through this book, read what catches your eye, and begin making 3 lists for future actions: To Learn, To Do, and To Buy". Really, this book is to help you prepare, to give you a starting point, and to guide you. Like most things though, I plan to adapt the suggestions to our needs, rather than just following everything listed. You just have to do what makes you feel secured. I mean, if you live in the desert, you probably don't have to worry about snowstorms and how to keep yourself warm if your heat is out, you know? I like how the book includes tips, stories, and checklists.

Even though the book is titled Survival Mom, I think this is a great book to read with your family so the whole family is on the same page, and that they all can actively participate. It'd be a fun family activity (plus you don't have to rely on one person's memory to remember where everything is!)

I know a lot of the tips can probably be found online (or from the author's blog) but it's great to have it in a book, especially if the electricity is out, then the book becomes handy!

As we're preparing our house to welcome the new baby (decluttering, reorganizing, cleaning and all), this is a great time to read this book with my husband while we make lists of action (rather than just read and forget about it soon after...) I think we'll start with Chapter 6 - Home Base. Then as we move to cleaning out the kitchen, we'll read the chapters on food storage. There are 12 chapters in the book plus some extra bonus materials. We can always just read one chapter a month (or more if we're ambitious) and make that into a family learning activity without feeling too stressed about having to do everything at once (and then be put off about the whole thing.) Of course, we'll hope no disasters will happen in the next 12 months :)

(Note - since I am currently pregnant, my attention span does not allow me to read every chapter in this book... so this is probably not a good review of all the content in the book. However, just browsing the book and reading the tips here and there helps motivated me to get started and take action, which is saying something during this busy time! Once we have thoroughly read the book (and hopefully have done something about preparedness), I will give a more proper review on what works and does not work for us... yes it may be a while... but I don't want to give up half way through!)




Note - Received a free copy of the book as part of the TLC Book Tours. Check out all the other blogs reviewing this book!

Tuesday, April 10th: It’s a Crazy, Beautiful Life
Wednesday, April 11th: A Homesteading Neophyte
Monday, April 16th: the state that i am in
Thursday, April 19th: The Apartment Prepper’s Blog
Monday, April 23rd: Cheerios Underfoot
Tuesday, April 24th: Being 5
Thursday, April 26th: Wandering Thoughts of a Scientific Housewife
Monday, April 30th: Mental Foodie
Friday, May 4th: 2 Kid and Tired Book Reviews
TBD: The Chatelaine’s Keys
TBD: My Year(s) of Spending Less and Living More
TBD: {A} Musing Mother
TBD: Prepared LDS Family



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