Book Review: Survival Mom by Lisa Bedford

Remember the Y2K scare? I do. I was just out of high school, unmarried, with no children, and I remember how funny I thought it was when the big day came, and all those people stockpiling bottled water and toilet paper just looked a little silly.

Fast forward a few years.

Do you remember Hurricane Katrina? I do. I was in my early 20s, married, with a 3 month old baby. I remember watching the footage on tv in absolute horror, and realizing that could be me. That could be us. Suddenly disaster preparedness made much more sense. I didn't build a bomb shelter or anything, but after that I tried to make sure we always had some extra diapers, and bottled water, and formula after my son weaned.

Last year a storm knocked out our power for nearly two days, and I realized we were still not nearly prepared enough.

Disaster preparedness is not just for eccentrics and doomsayers. It's for regular families, like mine and yours.

Blogger Lisa Bedford, aka The Survival Mom, has authored a book by the same name, to bring us all up to speed on what disaster preparedness looks like for families. (Softcover, 323 pages. ISBN 978-0-06-208946-5)

Whether you're just looking to get through a couple of days without power after a storm, or trying to insulate against job loss or a financial crisis, or are actually trying to prep for a total collapse of civilization, Lisa has tips, specific guidelines, and other advice you'll find helpful. (I fall into the first camp, by the way.)

Much of the book is devoted to the specifics of acquiring, storing, and prepping food and water for an emergency situation. I learned a lot. I liked that rather than just making sort of general statements about storing "enough" food for each person, she gave actual specific guidelines about quantities, menu planning, rotating out the stored food so none is wasted and so on. (She also points out things I hadn't fully considered, like how having 14 boxes of Cheerios in the pantry is probably not sufficient food storage. You probably could live for a while on cereal alone, but you wouldn't want to. Your kids wouldn't either. The focus is on responsible, usable food storage, not hoarding.)

Throughout the book, I was impressed with the specificity of her recommendations: actual products to research, stores to find recommended items, procedures for food prep.

In addition to the information about food, you'll find a wealth of information about things like getting organized, living without electricity, (shudder,) dealing with financial crisis, safety, and evacuation.

Which recommendations you follow, and to what extent you are going to follow them depend heavily upon what it is you're trying to prepare for.

I'm not interested in storing food for a year, and being ready to go off the grid at any moment.Some of you may be. I'm also not the target audience for the rather lengthy discussion of firearms. We don't, and we won't have guns in our home. I do believe if you're at all interested in preparing for natural or other disasters, (and you should be, if you have children,) you'll find plenty to do, research, contemplate and discuss in this book.

It was a worthwhile read that I'll be referring back to, as we gather a more responsible stash of food and water, and other necessities, like a solar charger for my beloved iPhone.

Lisa Bedford, The Survival Mom.

If you'd like to keep up with The Survival Mom on the web, you can find her on FB, Twitter, and of course, her blog.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for allowing me to participate in this book tour.

Disclosure: I was provided with a free copy of this book to review. No other compensation was provided, and all opinions are my own.