Matt,

I have three kids too and they all have great talents. But I don't sit around and passively hope anything for them. I take them out gardening. I teach them how to read whats happening around them to give them a bit of rat cunning. I teach them how to cook and how to use google to suck up as much knowledge as they can,just in case. I've adopted the no regrets appraoch to life. I don't teach my kids to be afraid of the future, I am teaching them how to be prepared for wahtever comes down at them.

You sound like you're just a little too attached to your comfy middle class lifestyle and not quite ready to accept the possibility that it all might go sideways any time soon.

As Phoenix says in his opening paragraph, all of us have gonne through a moment of shocked disbelief as we have absorbed Peak Oil and its potential ramifications. The truth is none of us really know what the future holds. By exploring the scenarios however you can learn a little bit each day and start to mitigate bit by bit.

I'm sure your kids are great tennis players, and I'm sure you're proud of them. BUt you need to ask yourself this question: If TSHTF have I done enough to give them the necessary skills to survive and prosper in a world where the oil ration is going to be severely curtailed?

And I don't buy your Joe Average excuse either. You seem like a pretty articulate guy to me. I suggest you go into Dymocks and buy The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler. Read it, absorb it. Take a week off work and recover, the come back and join us here on The Oil Drum for counselling and support.