Cruising with Kids: A Cure for a Disturbing Trend

[Stillraining]

[QUOTE=clausont;374793]From the sound of it, Stillraining, your kids should be as immune to allergies as anybody if it held true about the too clean thought. Apparently, it does not always (or ever?) hold true. Sorry to hear about the allergies they have developed. That would not be fun for them. Hopefully, they will be able to outgrow the allergies or they will some how clear up. It is a sure thing that if the "experts" don't know the true answers - I surely don't

A bit of a different subject - we are planning on taking our Ingrid up the coast to Puget Sound (Port Townsend) next spring - maybe around April or so. Perhaps we will run into you guys up there?[/QUOTE]


Its quit possible...I should be in the water May 1st...shooting for a slip at Skyline...pretty much a straight shot to PT

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by LuvToSail

Sometimes I worry about little details like keeping the water on the outside. The more experience I get, the less I freak out out things like a leaking bellows on a dripless ( I walked into our boat on the lake to find 8" of water on the cabin floor and the floor boards floating.) It all turned out fine...but at those times like that I ask my self ...why do I do this!!!

Leaks in my Westsail 32 freaked me out because I had a ballasted yacht. I don't worry about leaks causing me to sink in my Privilege 39. Instead, I worry about water damage. If I was heading offshore in another monohull, I would make sure all the thru hull fittings were robust and in perfect condition, and I would replace all the hoses. That would take care of most of the worries about water getting into a robust yacht like a Cal 2-46.

Kid's and young people make cruising better. It also turns them into citizens of the world and completes their education.

[GordMay]

The "hygiene hypothesis" suggests that early childhood (particularly the first year) exposure to bugs (bacteria and other microbes) might prime the immune system to prevent allergies and illness.
➥ The Hygiene Hypothesis: Are Cleanlier Lifestyles Causing More Allergies For Kids?

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by maxingout

We took our kids with us on our circumnavigation, and they regard it as the high point of their lives. No TV, no cell phones, no troublesome peer pressures, and lots of positive adventures. Our kids are still our best friends.

If I had to do it over again, I would do the same thing. No regrets.

The amount of mental toxic waste in the twenty-first century is enormous. Mind pollution from the media is at record levels. I regard television as a weapon of mass destruction, and most children watch it 5 hours a day. Children listen to the parents for minutes each day, and watch television and the media non-stop for hours every day. It's no wonder that kids go adrift and have more than a little confusion in their mind.

I think that sums up very well all of the reasons for taking your kids cruising. I think it is really important to bond with your kids and make them your friends. My parents are very much still my best friends and I would have it no other way. Don't forget to mention though that, although kids watch five hours of tv, there are lots of parents that will watch six if you give them a chance.

It is amazing to me how little kids benefit from being around their peers though. So many awful things come from being young and being around other kids. They can be very cruel. Sometimes I think I would have been better off being on a desert island until about age 17, I'm sure a lot of parents feel that way about their kids now.

[Stillraining]

Right on ..Maxingout!

We finally broke down an allowed Internet access for the kids about 4 months ago..They are 15,17 & 19..I'm able to look 20' across the room right now as I type this and watch what my youngest daughter's is researching for a school project as their only access is in the family room which is a wide open area so as to monitor their activities...we still don't and never will have broadcast television into the house...we do have a TV and we watch movies together as a family up to PG13....I'm all for deserted Islands as long as I can hold out and they hang in...Im going for 19 or 20...

[Alaska JD]

Kids learn social skills primarly from their age peer group. That exposure can of course come from school, regular activities with age mate peers, or siblings in similar age catagory (1 or 2 years apart). I'm not sure I would take an only child on extended cruising with very limited peer contact.

[Alaska JD]

At some point kids raised on boats need to be able to integrate with those raised "on the hard" with lots more social experience. There are significant benefits to raising kids on boats and the control of their social environmental available to parents. There are a whole host of other benefits as well. There are also tradeoffs that wise parents need to take into account to prepare kids for the long haul.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Alaska JD

Kids learn social skills primarly from their age peer group...

Originally Posted by Alaska JD

At some point kids raised on boats need to be able to integrate with those raised "on the hard" with lots more social experience. There are significant benefits to raising kids on boats ...

Cruising kids’ “peer group” tends towards adults (rather than contemporaries), with whom they quickly learn to integrate. This helps explain why boat kids often seem more mature than their land-bound contemporaries.

I believe that those raised on the hard generally have different social skills, rather than more or better skills.

[Alaska JD]

Gord you are absolutely right on both counts. I wasn't trying to quantify either skill set, simply point out that most of the time, at some point cruising kids need to integrate their own social skills with those of kids raised on land if they don't continue cruising. Several months ago there was an article in one of the sailing magazines written by a young lady still in high school whose parents quit cruising and she and her sisters began attending formal school. She wrote of the difficulty of that process as she figured out how to relate to other girls her age. I think the vast majority of the time the integration process is taken in stride and kids are much better for the process. Please understand I TOTALLY support cruising with kids. I wish I'd been able to do it with my own. I just think it's important for parents to be aware of a kid's developmental process and how to help it in a healthy way - wherever they live.

BTW how do you guys do "quotes" in the different colored boxes. I'm new to the forum and haven't figured that out yet

John

[GordMay]

John:
To get blue boxed quotes, you hit the quote button, second from trhe left, at the bottom of the post you're quoting.

[Alaska JD]

Originally Posted by GordMay

John:
To get blue boxed quotes, you hit the quote button, second from trhe left, at the bottom of the post you're quoting.

Cool -That works - Thanks

[Kefaa]

"In my youth there were allergies to poison ivy, stings ....I never knew a kid who had a food allergy....I went thru 13 Years of Parochial Education and 5 years of College...the only food allergy that was ever discussed was strawberrys."


For good reason. They died. While I am sure some could argue that some parents are just overprotective, let me give you another perspective.

We discovered our son had an anaphylactic food allergy when we gave him baby apple sauce which used egg as a stabilizer. Up to that point, we had no idea we had an issue. Five minutes in, he vomited, and stopped breathing. We lived six minutes from a trauma center or it would have been another kid you never met with an allergy.

After that, they tested him and found the same reaction to wheat, and nuts. So you adapt. You learn all the words that mean egg, or wheat or nut like: globulin, lecithin, livetin, lysozyme, ovalbumin, ovoglobulin, ovomucim...and that is just the short list for egg. And because you are unable to tell him from any other eight-year-old, we are forever vigilant.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Kefaa

"

We discovered our son had an anaphylactic food allergy when we gave him baby apple sauce which used egg as a stabilizer. Up to that point, we had no idea we had an issue. Five minutes in, he vomited, and stopped breathing. We lived six minutes from a trauma center or it would have been another kid you never met with an allergy.

After that, they tested him and found the same reaction to wheat, and nuts. So you adapt. You learn all the words that mean egg, or wheat or nut like: globulin, lecithin, livetin, lysozyme, ovalbumin, ovoglobulin, ovomucim...and that is just the short list for egg. And because you are unable to tell him from any other eight-year-old, we are forever vigilant.

Sorry to hear that.

I know it must be hard to live with.

Have you any genetic testing information?

[Little Otter]

Luv to Sail I think that is a great Idea, I Wish my parents would just buy a big boat and us go cruising, of course my dad told me yesterday when we docked my boat that the only way he would cross the ocean or cruise the coast if he had a 100' boat and being the only sailor in the family i would be the skipper wich might also have something to do with it, although he does want me to find out how much a power cruiser hull the guy down the road has is so that I can fix it up into a weekender.

[anjou]

I think for any method to be effective, kids need complete removal from the distractions of society, which is why boot camps way out in the boonies work so well.
Added to that, the kids need to be 'leveled' with peers. No status given by alowing some kids to keep the trappings of wealth and status like bling, gadgets and brand name clothing.
I recall a TV prog either earlier this year or last year when one family were put on a Carib island for a week and they had to make a shelter, catch and cook food etc.
There were the usual tantrums from the 'Im so bored' kids but eventually something clicked and they gelled into a good team.

Numerous studies are published by many parties as to whats wrong with kids these days and what to do about it. One i remember spoke of the damage done to 'inbetweenies' - girls who are 8-11 who are robbed of their childhoods by exposing and allowing them to participate in adolecsent behaviour re clothing, makeup and ideas.
Cosmopolitan Magazine should be on the top shelves as its an open sale publication yet has numerous articles about sexual matters, and girls read it and then feel the need to have a relationship, sex life, adult lifestyle, diet etc.

Any activity that takes kids away from the comercial and material world and helps them focus on reality has to be a good thing. It instills the basic social skills and will be the foundation for adult life.