Coaxing children into lifejackets

[paulineb]

Any tips on how to get little ones of 2yrs and 3 yrs to keep their lifejackets on, or even get them to put them on in the first place, without all the screaming and kicking and "NOs" that this can involve? Tried the sweetie bribery. They ate the sweets and then took off the LJ again !

Pauline B

 

[brianrunyard]

Do all the adults on board wear theirs? Lead by example.

 

[BarryD]

With short person at 32 mths it sometime helps if Daddy wears one, we use gas inflatable (150s I think) which are quite light and I've thought about getting a spare and triping it so that he can wear it at home when he wants - any thoughts?


Barry D.

 

[ChrisP]

Don't know the answer we were always lucky in the face that we had boats before kids therefore they grew up in them. fraid you might have to cross the line from "nice MaMa", to "grumpy old bugger MaMa" and put up with the screams. It'll only last for a few hours, so I'm told. Glad I'm down the other end of the pontoon.
Alternativly get Mr B to enforce the rule while you pop down the shoe shop.

 

[ChrisP]

32 months!!!!! If you can't get your own way while they're 32 months you've got no bloody chance later on. Some rules are just not for debate and this is one of them. My kids wore life jackets from the time they left the travel cot and that went on until I made it their choice at the age of 14 YEARS and very strong swimmers. No argument allowed.
If you think thats hard, try pulling children out of the river and identifying them later at the inquest as I have. It puts a whole new slant on weather "small one" should have it's own way.

 

[BarryD]

All agreed we don\'t board untill he is jacketed NM

Well it's true.

Barry D.

 

[Guest]

Re: yup

No you don't have to wear lifejacket. Warn a friend on pontoon what you plan to do. Then take off lines, and wave goodbye. Child puts on lifejacket, and gets aboard.

Kids do what skipper says not what s/he does (nice and PC eh?). When they can swim (the test is chuck them in water and see what happens) then maybe no lifejacket.

Incidentally, my kids fell off the pontoon more times than off the boat. I see lot of kids in uk with lifejackets on pontoon.

Is pauline a bit wimpy? A friend who stayed with us on board overheard the kids chatting in their cabin: "you've got to be careful with Dad, but Mum's harmless..."

 

[traceyandsteve]

Stretching this a bit further, can anyone give me tips on persuading my other half that he ought to make his kids wear their lifejackets?

I'm not their mum, so nothing I say goes, and HE just says that if they fall in, they'll swim. Scares the c**p out of me when they're going up and down to the flybridge with the canopies open and no LJ's on.

I just hope I'm not at the helm trying to remember man overboard procedures when the inevitable happens!

Tracey

 

[Guest]

1. try "its what the big boys/girls wear"
2. "I borrowed this off Tinky-Winky/Scott/Virgil/Alan Tracy (for older ones) just for you"
3. split the sweets. Half now, half later/ when youve kept them on for an hour

RJMW

 

[Guest]

Re: Lead by example and!!

My kids aren't allowed in the cockpit unless they were a lifejacket. The five year old is ok about it but the 30 month old hates hers. However she likes being with the rest of us in the cockpit rather than on her own down below so she wears the lifejacket. Incidentally she tried on a self inflating model at the chandlers and hated it so whe wears an old fashioned bulky one instead.

 

[adrianm]

I find that they only complain if other people on the boat aren't wearing them so I only insist that everyone wears then when little ones are onboard.

 

[peterg]

how about....

first one into a lifejacket gets to drive the boat today!.....at least they probably would't bounce you about like Mr B... ;-)

 

[Guest]

No discussion allowed. Life jackets donned while messing about on pontoon and daddy buggering about with weed filters, battery switches etc. Like Matts said, they've fallen off the pontoon more than off the boat, and the only really dodgy time is getting on to the pontoon to get the jackets from the locker on the boat...

Also, daddy has fallen in stepping from boat to pontoon when mooring up, so spose he should wear one too. Kids wear theirs to swim round boat when at anchor. Now (5 and 7) getting use to swimming in v deep water, and want to start snorkelling.

 

[Bergman]

Re: yup

Don't entirely agree.

Some things have to be non-negotiable. Perhaps more important for us rag & stick types.

Standing orders for everyone big small and in between harness and life jackets (combined) at all times.

Made a game of it with kids - playing at obeying orders without question, a bit like "Simon says" - I know it doesn't last long but it does help.

Trouble with pursuation is refusing gets more attention than agreeing.

Ability to swim is irrelevant - more swimmers drown than non swimmers. How you get a small exhausted child into a high freeboard motor boat I don't know. It would worry me.

 

[Bergman]

Re: PS

It was far worse making the cat wear a life jacket.

Still bear the scars

 

[longjohnsilver]

Re: yup

Generally speaking you would arrange to pick up any casualty from the bathing platform, which of course is near the water thus high freeboard shouldn't pose too much of a problem.

 

[MikeBrazier]

Re: yup

As long as everyone waits until skipper has said that the engines are in neutral of course!

 

[Bergman]

Re: yup

Yes

I see that. On a proper boat (with stick and flappy things) you normally pick up around midships for lowest freeboard.

I have mainsheet (long bit of rope) fastened with extra shackle so can quickly turn it into 4-1 block and tackle to raise casualty. Guess you can't do that on a motor boat.

My worry with boarding platform is getting it near the casualty and also being at the blunt end it will be bouncing up and down in anything of a seaway and could do lots of damage if the down bit and casualty coincided.

Wonder how many people actually practice man overboard. I always do a few drills first decent day of season (self-righteous b*****d) Did it so well once ended with bucket and fender wrapped around prop. Tried to pretend it was part of the exercise but it didn't work.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Been thru' it with my 8yr old,Pauline. Basically its about vigilance, rules, low cunning and coercion. The first thing to realise is that the wearing of a lifejacket in no way guarantees survival of a child in a MOB situation. If a small child falls overboard at speed, firstly they're likely to knock themselves unconscious, secondly they will be very difficult to spot in the water and thirdly they're not likely to survive longer than 30-40 minutes in the kind of water temperatures around the UK. So the first rule has to be not to let them go overboard in the first place
I think the first step is the boat itself. Flybridge boats are not ideal because the helmsman and crew tend to congregate up top and the kids below. Its too easy for the kids to sneak into the cockpit unnoticed and the steep ladder upto the flybridge is another danger area. A sports boat or aft deck helm type boat (eg Broom type) allows a watch to be kept on anyone moving from below upto the cockpit. A cockpit canopy also helps to corral the little buggers
Getting a child to wear a LJ can be difficult but I found the following worked
Give the child a choice of which LJ to buy for him/her
Ensure its colourful and 'fun' to wear
Make sure its as comfortable as poss. If its too tight, buy another one
Upgrade to an auto gas type as soon as they're big enough as these are far more comfortable
Make rules designating where the child should wear the LJ. In our case we said anywhere on deck and alone on pontoon he must wear LJ. In cockpit with adults its OK to take it off
If you have more than 1 child on board, designate one of them as LJ monitor to ensure others wear their LJ's (kids love lording it over their mates)
Designate 1 adult, preferably a non working crewmember ie granny to keep an eye on them
Last but not least, threaten them. In our case, loss of the TV/VCR remote control for any transgression works every time

 

[Guest]

Re: lifejackets, engines, rear boarding etc.

Yes of course - we're in the med so a leap into the water is partly the aim of every trip. One way or the other, it has to be got home that when skipper says do this or that - it get gets done. Not the current vogue to be have snap-fingers power over kids, but a 36 month old ?

Other stuf is yes, a powerboat, huge rear bathing platform.

Engines off to bringem aboard for ultimate saftey, and easy to hear what is going on. Good rule if they ever take out a tender - once someone is in the water you don not go near them with engines on.

Swimming ladder. Agreed difficult to get kids back, and since they are more at risk (as anyone is) in the marina, not a bad idea to have the swimladder down all the time so they can get out of the water, or if colin come round....