Re: [Cal_Boats] Kids, family??? (Rick)

That's encouraging. We'd thought of that as well but just hadn't gotten around to trying it. We may have to put it on in the water to minimize the screams LOL. Thanks, Paul In a message dated 9/8/2010 10:39:19 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, lr… [at] qwest.net writes: I have may have missed this suggestion already. What we did with our youngest when he reacted the same way to his life jacket, was to take him to a pool, put the life jacket on him then let him float in the pool with it on. He loved it. Then he wanted to wear it all the time. He wanted to go to the boat and go out just so he could wear his life jacket. The downside is that it resulted in him jumping off the boat into the water every time he got the chance. We got really good at man overboard drill. Fortunately, at that point, we were sailing a Thistle on a lake. Much easier to haul him on board the Thistle. Rick Lobb Cal 2-29 “Rebecca Shea” Bellingham, WA From: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com [mailto:Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of pw… [at] aol.com Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 7:01 PM To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Kids, family??? David - Not exactly sure what you're saying . . . that we should go sailing regardless if he can go or not? If so, we do race every Wed and Grandpa gets to see his grandson for a few hours of babysitting. Works well for all of us. He loves the water, loves the beach, loves the boat, loves fish . . . just hates his life jacket. In regard to doing things "just for the kids" I am with you there. There seems to be a lot of "over-parenting" these days with parents "over-booking" their kids in one activity after another. I read the "Saving Sailing" book by Nicholas Hayes and he said that one of the main reasons sailing is dying is that parents and kids aren't doing it as a family but rather the parents are dropping the kids off at sailing class just as they would soccer and the kids are dropping it when they reach college age just as they would other "kids" sports. I grew up in West Texas about as far away from a large body of water as you can get or from any natural geographic feature as far as that goes. So when we took a vacation it almost always involved an 8 hour drive to a big lake or to the mountains. Granted we loved going on vacation where ever it was just to get the Hell outta town but the only time we ever took a vacation for us kids was the one time we went to Six Flags in Dallas. I just want to get him initiated to the boat at an early age so that it is a regular part of his life. Paul In a message dated 9/7/2010 6:42:25 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, tm… [at] yahoo.com writes: Paul, Children are part of the family but are NOT the primary. They need to be integrated, but cannot be the reason the family does everything. Sailing with young kids is tough. In our family we always put the family first, the kids had to fit into that. We did lots of stuff that we felt were "for the kids", but the family as a whole existed, and they were just a part of that. I know, old thinking. Regards, David Dobbs, Cal29 411 --- On Tue, 9/7/10, pw… [at] aol.com <pw… [at] aol.com> wrote: From: pw… [at] aol.com <pw… [at] aol.com> Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Kids n lifejackets - HELP needed To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Date: Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 9:21 AM LOL I'd rather not wait a year to take him out though. Paul In a message dated 9/7/2010 9:35:22 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, ge… [at] hotmail.com writes: Same Problem here....somehow 24 months to 36 months solved everything, except the 12 month old is now 24 months. Give it a year and you should be okay. To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: he… [at] sbcglobal.net Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2010 12:38:08 -0700 Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Kids n lifejackets - HELP needed try chocolate chip cookies, one every so many minutes he keeps it on (lollipops last too long). Helen From: "pw… [at] aol.com" <pw… [at] aol.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Mon, September 6, 2010 11:20:31 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Kids n lifejackets - HELP needed My 26 month old son LOVES the boat but HATES wearing a life jacket. We have 2 of the same type, one a body glove with the crotch straps etc and the other the same type but with Scooby Doo on it to no avail. I am not exaggerating when I say that if you were in the boat next door you'd swear we were pulling his fingernails out with pliers and lighting splinters in his toenails when we put this on him. We let him scream for 30 min before giving up on it and keeping him below . . with my wife of course. We didn't bribe him with a lollipop but may have to next time if no one had any other tricks they can share. Thanks - Paul Adventure Kwest '80 Cal 39