Email This Page to a FriendPreview: Tricks of the Trade; Becoming a Cool Boat Dad

November 7, 2012

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I’m usually generous with my professional tricks of the trade. My own gurus certainly were with me as I was finding my way as a boatbuilder, and I try to pay it back as well as pay it forward by teaching classes and answering the phone and the email enquiries that pour in on a daily basis. Not today though. No secret tools or materials, no jiffy rigs or Egyptian technologies. Today I thought I’d share my tricks for raising kids who love to go for boat rides…

Three Tricks for Being The Cool Boat Dad:

Always be willing to take your kids’ friends along. You’ve got to realize that even the hippest of parents are not peers…and your kids and other kids benefit from interacting in a variety of surroundings. You must even be open to taking along the “friends” of theirs that you don’t really like. Odds are that you’l either see another side of them, or the new environment will make your child realize that the cool dude from school is really a dud. There is a selfish side to this tactic too: Having others along relieves Dad and/or Mom of continuous cruise director duty. One hint: Give a courtesy call to the other parents to explain your plans. Your afternoon picnic cruise may sound like a polar expedition to non-boating families. One reluctant parent from elementary school days didn’t want her child to come to a houseboat sleepover because the family didn’t like to drive in the neighborhood where we moored the boat. Some alternate directions based on local knowledge, however, along with a carpool, opened up a weekend of fun for all hands.

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