Cruising with 1 child...

[sailollie]

My husband and I have an 8 month old right now, and are planning to start a 2-3 year cruise in 5 years. We are wondering a few things and hope those of you out there with kids can help us out.

First, anyone sailing with just 1 child? What's that like? Are they missing peers or does it seem okay? (At this point, it's hard to tell exactly what our son's personality will be, so general advice would be great)

Second, our son will be almost 6 when we take off. This seems like an ideal age, but what is your experience?

At this point, we're still not sure if we are going to go for #2, or if we do what the spacing will be. For many reasons, 1 child makes sense to us, but we are worried about isolating him too much when we take off on our journey. Since we plan to spend lots of time anchored and with other cruisers, I imagine that there will be plenty of other children for him to play with....

I suppose this is just the beginning of lots of questions...BUT we all have to begin somewhere!

[RickLaPaz]

My opinion is that the magic years are 6 through 13. When the Big P hits afterwards, you may find yourself dealing with an unruly passenger instead of a kid that worships the water you walk on. That may be the time that you'll have to plan cruising around the schedules of his/her friends, i.e., ones that can fly in and meet the boat for some adventures. We've been living aboard and playing around boats off and on since our son was 6 and our daughter was 1. As the years went on, different moods, needs and attitudes appeared, but nothing catastrphic. Until they hit 19 and 14. Then all of a sudden a 52 boat wasn't quite big enough. Go figure.........

The greatest thing though about kids growing up on the water is that you will being doing your part in making intelligent, self sufficient and much more mature children for the future, instead of the spineless candy asses that roam this country like a wave of selfish invertabrates. That right there is worth the price of admission.

Good luck,

Rick

[Cruisingdad]

Sailollie,

These are good question to put on the Cruising With Children thread under the General Forum. Please take a look, talk to your husband, and write your questions. Your participation will be awesome.

- CD