It’s all in the little things…
C.E. Grundler
Yet again, one of John Urban’s posts got me to thinking, and led to what I’m going to talk about today. He was absolutely right, there are many pitfalls when it comes to kids and boating, and it’s a delicate line between establishing a life-long love of the water and all that floats, or winding up with offspring that avoid anything boat-related like the plague.
Myself, I don’t know if I even stood a chance. I was aboard boats from my earliest days – my parents claim ‘boat’ was among my first words, and it’s likely it will be among my last as well. Maybe that’s the key – getting kids out on the water before they’re too young to know any better. I preferred a rolling deck to a grassy backyard. To me, a cramped, tiny cabin was a cozy refuge. One of my favorite places to sleep was directly over the engine hatch in the salon, warmed and lulled to sleep by the steady rumble of twin diesels below me. And the engine room itself was a place of wonders. I was fascinated by the workings of those GMC 453s, and as the smallest crew member, often found myself sent down between them and instructed through various tasks. And that was a big factor as well. I felt I was an integral part of the boat’s upkeep and operations. I had responsibilities and I took pride in them, and eventually was presented with my own little ship (sailing dinghy) to command.
My daughter, unfortunately, doesn’t share my passion. Truth be told, she has mixed feelings when it comes to boats, and this circles back to John Urban’s DON’T list. When my daughter was younger, my husband tried to instill in her a love of the boating he’d grown up with. That boating involved a 14’ aluminum johnboat that would be loaded on the car’s roof before dawn, along with an extensive list of fishing gear. We’d haul up to a lake, launch and load the boat, (a process that usually involved a number of those expletives) then sit there in the silence of a chilly dawn, watching the sun rise and fishing. The boat was tippy, sucked the warmth from your body, and amplified any shuffling from a restless child to a volume my husband proclaimed would scare away every fish for 100 miles. And one big thing John missed on his list was *DON’T* keep small children captive aboard an open boat with no head – while a thermos of tea will fend off the cold, at least temporarily, eventually it leads to repeated calls for shore leave. As the children in question grow older, they’ll ultimately have something — anything — to do other than go fishing.
As my daughter was coming up on her teens I got my catboat. My husband, a non-sailor if ever there was one, had little interest in the boat. My daughter, however, often came aboard. She could care less for actually sailing, but was helpful, agreeable crew and enjoyed simply being out on the water. I’d be at the tiller and she’d lounge in the cockpit, basking in the summer sun, or curl up in the cabin, nestled on some pillows and reading or napping. We’d anchor and swim, or explore a beach. We followed no set schedule and we kept the boat well-provisioned with our favorite foods. The little stove could heat some soup or a pot of tea… and when mother nature called, there was a port-a-potti and privacy. We had a lot of great days aboard that boat, and even the worst ones left us with memories we still laugh about.
A few simple comforts go a long way.
I think the bottom line is that you can’t expect, simply because you enjoy something, your children will grow to feel the same. But I do believe if you focus on making their experiences, whatever they may be, as positive, happy and comfortable as possible, they’ll come away with good memories of those days.
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