Liveaboard Children Moving Back Aboard

[Hudson Force]

Both our children were raised aboard from infancy. Our daughter left for college in 1992 an our son followed a few years later. They have both been living in houses ashore, but recently they have both made steps to move back to the water. I'm off with my son tomorrow to survey a sloop with potential and my daughter, with husband and child, is shopping for a trawler. It reminds me of the salmon migrating back to the waters of the earlier life. Nancie and I have been living aboard and cruising since 1972. Nancie's brother has spent some time living aboard and our nephew Is living on a Catalina just a few slips away. It seems like a colony with soon seven family members aboard boats. Maybe it's the begining of a colony! Together we seem to have about 130 years of living aboard and cruising. A new generation of salmon is taking the swim!

[Cormorant]

That's a great story. I love hearing stuff like that. We're not liveaboards, but we cruise a lot with our kids (still just teenagers), and my dearest hope is that they'll make cruising part of their adult lives someday.

[klmmicro]

They are comfortable with it and they are following what they know. You did a great thing, showing them a normal that is foreign to so many. I am just now introducing my youngest daughter to the world on the water. We kayaked, surfed, swam, fished and such...but I never had the opportunity to spend time out on boats with them. Now that I have taken the plunge (finally!) she is eager to see what it is about.

Your story is awesome to me and it is a pleasure hearing it. Best of luck and wishes to them (and you as well)!

[boating2go]

We moved aboard after our daughter was grown but have quite a few friends who have done the same thing as you. I have notice most of their children do as your children are doing, I think you added seawater to their blood.

[IdoraKeeper]

The sea level is rising, its the beginning of water world.

[BandB]

It's also a credit to parenting when kids want to go back to things they learned or experienced in childhood. Sometimes it's a hometown. Sometimes the water. Sometimes the Mountains. Or a country they lived in for a while.

Of course the opposite is true too where kids don't want to do any of what they did as children. Want to move far away. And, yes, some don't want to go back to the water, but it's not a reflection of life on the water when that's the case, as much as it often is of the way their lives were specifically.

Good parents make childhood memorable and special. Bad parents make you want to forget childhood memories. Obviously, the OP made those memories for their kids special.

[CaptTom]

Whew, for a moment there I thought they were going to live back aboard with YOU!

We've had a few "boomerang" kids, twice with their own kids in tow. It's hard enough shoreside.

My theory has always been that this boating sickness we all have usually skips a generation. My grandfather built, sailed and delivered boats from the Caribbean to New England. My grandchildren love boating. The kids? Eh.

Obviously, you did something right!

[rw58ph]

We bought to big of a boat as we have had our youngest daughter with 3 children, and now grandchildren want to live with us. So the message is don’t buy a boat that is big enough they can move back in.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by rw58ph

We bought to big of a boat as we have had our youngest daughter with 3 children, and now grandchildren want to live with us. So the message is don’t buy a boat that is big enough they can move back in.

You are reminding me of the Cosby Family where the kids and grandchild kept returning home. But deep down he loved it as I'm sure you do.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Whew, for a moment there I thought they were going to live back aboard with YOU! ................

My son is with us for now and in our aft cabin, but just for a convenience after the house he was in was sold. He'll be renting a place, but our daughter and son-in-law just left a deposit on a Gulfstar 36 MKII trawler that looks much like the boat in your avatar. I'm expecting good results from the survey. We cruised Florida by car with them this past week looking at about 15 boats. We rated them with a rubric looking at ten main categories and found three potentials and one that stood out above the others.

[Pelagic]

Great to hear the tadpoles are now swimming on their own.
Maybe you guys can apply for a Fleet Rate