Thinking through how you'd protect your family in a war situation

[readytogo79]

Sorry this is not a nice conversation and is not meant to trigger anyone but its a bit weird to have this chat with people at school pick up or similar, so I'm wondering how others are thinking about this. I'll caveat this by saying I'm not "hysterical" (an insult I've seen flying about on here today), or dramatic, and not a conspiracy theorist or anything. I'm a professional academic, pretty moderate left, pretty pragmatic I like to think. I follow politics very closely and it's been a few weeks since I said to my husband that I think there is a case to be made that the US is no longer our ally and that we (the UK & Europe / Allies) should be preparing for the prospect of them being an adversary. I'm now pretty convinced of that.

In practice what could this mean? Article 5 and therefore NATO is looking likely to be rendered meaningless, - so an emboldened Russia invading Moldova, Lithuania, Finland... then Europe having to step up without the US, and potentially - worst case scenario but much more likely than 6 months ago - nuclear war.

I live in central London (zone 2) which my husband and child. I've been trying not to imagine this worst case scenario but given Russia are already attacking us with cyber attacks, undermining our democracy and of course the Skripol attacks etc, it's certainly a possibility one has to think about. If it started to look likely I've been thinking about what we'd do, how we could act fast and where we could go. It's a truly horrible thought and not something I ever thought I'd have to consider. But I've only got one child, and my husband and they are all I have in the world and I can already feel my protectiveness kicking in.

Even though London is our home I'd plan to leave and go somewhere in the UK less of a target. The Lake District, Snowdonia or the Highlands perhaps. I don't know how we would manage to do this but I just feel so strongly I'd want to protect my child and my family unit.

In all seriousness, has anyone thought through a scenario where we are at war, and what you would do to protect your family?

Unless any of you already own second homes, how are you realistically going to magically relocate to the lakes or Scotland?

Tents ? 😁 (just trying to lighten the mood a little)

I wonder if the Russians will train a crack squad of midges ?

have definitely been having semi serious conversations with DH about moving to somewhere remote like New Zealand 😉 (this was an idea of ours pre kids 10 yrs ago and starts to feel like something we would consider if the shit hits the fan here (I m not in the Uk but Europe- Netherlands which is a nice country to live in in many ways but so overcrowded and not a lot of real nature left, plus a growing right wing party and lots of cultural turmoil that has become more and more unpleasant since the pandemic).

I also wonder how to prepare for a war and protect my family and I am glad to read I am not the only one. I am not hysterical or dramatic about this, just weighing our options like you OP.
NZ is probably not on the cards as immigration there is difficult and I don’t know if Id want to move away from family that far. But living somewhere else has always been on my mind long before the threat of war so I’m left thinking; this might be te right time… when the pressure isn’t there yet.

I’d love to see this thread evolve with ideas on how to stay safe/where to go/what to do so if everyone has any input…
(and no “don’t worry it’s not going to happen” is not what I’m after… Of course we hope for the best but it’s good to prepare for the worst)

I can't afford to move so I'd just have to get blown up. I do have family in Ireland so I guess I could just buy a one way ticket to there and hope my uncle or auntie or cousin could let me stay in their house? And just leave everything behind. I don't really own much so that wouldn't be so bad.

I'd head back to our family farm in ireland. I'm handy with the horticulture and have two greyhounds who could provide us with rabbits and squirrels. Or I'd just poison us all with mushrooms.

I live in Finland and work next door to a target (military aircraft manufacture and maintenance facility), my partner would be recalled to the army (he did his time as a conscript) and I would have to do whatever is needed of me (total defence doctrine, everyone plays their part), most likely maintenance work. I would consider sending my children to my parents in the UK because lets face it, there is far less chance of Russia attacking the UK.

Tbh I'd rather be living in central London and die instantly when a nuclear blast hit Westminster. I'm not going to worry about it though as I doubt it would happen. I think other countries have more to be alarmed about. Having visited quite a few as they were emerging from Soviet control, I'm bitterly disappointed in the US's seeming failure to understand the importance of protecting Europe with the 'nuclear umbrella'.

I also live in London Zone 2. I’d just hope to be instantly irradiated to be honest - can’t understand why anyone would want to survive.

DD lives just outside London and I live in rural Somerset. It would be lovely to think I was safe and DD could come home and be safe as well, but I'm slap bang between a huge army base and a navel air base so I'm just as likely to be sent to oblivion as she is. So, for me, it would be down all my heart rate meds in one sitting, grab DP's gin and wait for the cardiac arrest or the bomb to drop, whichever comes first.

I think history (and every disaster movie ever made) shows me that by the time you realise you need to leave, it’s too late.

Absolutely this.

What's the most humane way to kill DCat without having to involve a vet? No sane woman wants to be alive unless armed if Russian soldiers turn up and I'm not leaving him to take his chances.

There is no where that would be ok in the event of a nuclear war.

better be killed outright that days or weeks of death by radiation sickness

sorry but that’s how it is.

you are kidding yourself on about the Lake District (sellafield) and the highlands (dounray, faslane, Lossiemouth plus all the training bases)

RAF Waddington is 2 miles away & RAF Coningsbys not that much further away, I'm hoping they're a big enough target that we'll know nothing about WW3 & be gone pretty quickly.

I watch THREADS at school in the 90's if that's the world that would be left I'm not sure I'd want to survive.

Daisypetula Springfield's is not that far away from sellafield though and the ripple would still easily affect the Lake District due to its location

My plan is to do what im doing now.
Im not worried not going to get worried over it.
If it happens it happens end of nothing i can do to stop it.
So i will just live my life as normal.

I'm afraid radiation will mean the air, food and water will poison you slowly. It's a horrible slow death. I would rather die in seconds at ground zero.

Me neither. I'd rather go out in the first blast.

What is Springfield's ?

Personally I am preparing for war by stressing less about work, bothering less about hoovering and eating my favourite dinner more often.

Madeleine Wickham (aka Sophie Kinsella) is a fairly
famous author who has terminal brain cancer. When asked by her husband how she wanted to live she basically said “normally but a bit better”. So they are buying the posh cheese and getting better seats at the theatre.

That is how I am going to live from now on.

I live in Sweden next to a harbour which would be a target. I would be stationed where I work (school) and young adult ds and dd would be recalled to the army. Our nearest bunker is at the school so it would be close. Out nearest smaller bunker is one of our neighbour’s garage. There was siren practise yesterday, so loud we couldn’t talk. If it was real it would be so scary, it’s good to know what is expected of us though.

I don’t think a war in 2025 or after will look like the war most people seem to be expecting. You won’t just need to move to Scotland to avoid harm. It’s far more likely to be initially a war of disruption on multiple levels to cause havoc with day to day things. I suspect any direct action such as bombings would be centred on infrastructure and although there would be some casualties it wouldn’t be huge amounts. Later it would get worse and I can see there being serious issues with travel especially sabotage of flights etc. It would be more likely we are run into the ground over years and start attacking each other for scarce resources than bombings/invasion/nuclear war.

I currently live in a tiny hamlet in SW France.
Not sure if I would return to the UK to be with my dc or if they should come over here.
Access to clean water and sanitation is surely the most important consideration.

I'm in Wales near Cardiff. I don't have the money to relocate if I had to. I also care for my DD who is disabled so can't just up and go.
I have no idea what I would do.
I do wonder if Reform will be voted in next which will mean we'll part of the Orange one's little gang of tyrants.

Given what I’ve said above about my thoughts the ways I’d protect my family would be :
-making sure all vaccinations are up to date
-having a good basic medicine stock to deal with things like fevers / diarrhoea etc
-making sure we had a good stock of food staples and multivitamins
-helping my dc to be as mentally resilient as possible and able to entertain themselves in the absence of any power (I might buy a lot more books and board games!)

I think it would just be a slow decline till we are an isolated and desperate nation rather than a quick end in a big fireball

I lived most of my life in a fairly turbulent/violent area of the West Bank and some things I’ve done even since leaving without thinking. Stuff like always having batteries, torches, as much bottled water as we can store, tinned foods etc. We also have a plan for where we can go in a hurry if we need to leave the city and have things like spare medication, paperwork etc packed and ready to go.
Unfortunately we don’t have a safe room or access to shelters like we did at home (not that they’d be any good against nuclear weapons I suppose).

If I thought we were going to be nuked I think I’d just pray we were in the blast zone

I agree with this which is why living where I live the way we live (Netherlands, highly dependent on normal and digital infrastructure) being under cyber attack would already cause major disruption and chaos. So the idea of living somewhere off grid/ self sufficient makes sense. I also think out ports (Rotterdam) could be a target as this is where transportation to the rest of Europe often comes through) and being such a tiny country this would probably affect a lot more than just the industrial ports and infrastructure around there.

Even without actual physical attack (nuclear or otherwise) we would be in so much trouble over here, NL is highly dependent as a country.