jezjez
Well-Known Member
My wife thinks having a 2-and-a-half year old on board would be really hard. Is our little one too young for liveaboard life even if we only do french canals and day sail the med?
Any thoughts?
Any thoughts?
Small children
- Thread starter jezjez
- Start date
cornish 2
Active Member
Hard work but fun!
We lived aboard last year with 3 kids, the youngest 3. Luckily for us they all play well together.We kept pudsafloat.com running for the start of the trip. Have a look. Best bit of kit for the kids was micro scooters for ashore. It meant that we didn't have to carry the little one all the time ! My wife also recorded Audio books on their IPods.
It couldn't have been too bad as they are excited about being back on the boat next month for the summer !
We lived aboard last year with 3 kids, the youngest 3. Luckily for us they all play well together.We kept pudsafloat.com running for the start of the trip. Have a look. Best bit of kit for the kids was micro scooters for ashore. It meant that we didn't have to carry the little one all the time ! My wife also recorded Audio books on their IPods.
It couldn't have been too bad as they are excited about being back on the boat next month for the summer !
maby
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately, there is no "standard child" so this is not a meaningful question. Ours was always a fairly sedate creature and I certainly did not encourage any unnecessary physical activity! He happily sat through road journies of two and three days solid at the age of three and I would have had no concerns about taking him "liveaboard". Many others seem to be incapable of sitting still for more than two minutes and the thought of having them on a small boat is positively terrifying - which is yours???
jrudge
Well-Known Member
We are not live aboard, but our kids (2 and 4) have been on the boat since birth.Our 2 year old did Southamption to La Rochelle @ 10 weeks.
They dont like weating life jackets when small, our 4 year old lives her pink auto inflate, so we use a kids marine harness on a long line that just gets him to the back of the boat.
Given your kids will start school at age 4 I would take the opportunity now. After that you have another 14 years to wait!
We have a media server with hundreds of Cartoons on it and the kids have a TV in their cabin which assists greatly! Flat TVs are £120 for a 22 inch LED on ebay and Western Digital 12 v Madia Drives and a WDTV live box will sort you out.
A Handy Sitt makes any chair into a high chair.
Canals should be great fun and nice for swimming.
They dont like weating life jackets when small, our 4 year old lives her pink auto inflate, so we use a kids marine harness on a long line that just gets him to the back of the boat.
Given your kids will start school at age 4 I would take the opportunity now. After that you have another 14 years to wait!
We have a media server with hundreds of Cartoons on it and the kids have a TV in their cabin which assists greatly! Flat TVs are £120 for a 22 inch LED on ebay and Western Digital 12 v Madia Drives and a WDTV live box will sort you out.
A Handy Sitt makes any chair into a high chair.
Canals should be great fun and nice for swimming.
Cspirit
Well-Known Member
I agree with the above - our kids all sailed from birth, but we tended to do long passages when they were asleep. One word of warning though - I wouldn't let my kids swim inthe French canals. I know that the local children do it, but I suspect that pollution levels are quite high.
jezjez
Well-Known Member
Thanks.
I know it's an impossible question but I was asked to ask it. Our daughter came on our 27 footer last summer about 6 times for a day sail. We were on a swinging mooring and we worried about dropping her in the drink and so we neglected the boat. In contrast the summer before that, we probably slept aboard 20 times. We are now moving to a pontoon to make things easier but our daughter does want to get about and move and our boat is a 70s design so small. She, our daughter, is currently 13 months old - and gorgeous.
Thanks, best wishes jez.
I know it's an impossible question but I was asked to ask it. Our daughter came on our 27 footer last summer about 6 times for a day sail. We were on a swinging mooring and we worried about dropping her in the drink and so we neglected the boat. In contrast the summer before that, we probably slept aboard 20 times. We are now moving to a pontoon to make things easier but our daughter does want to get about and move and our boat is a 70s design so small. She, our daughter, is currently 13 months old - and gorgeous.
Thanks, best wishes jez.
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