Rebel Heart- Keeping positive

TomMaine said:

It's not fair for responsible media to take those personal snippets, and create an article around it. It's certainly not journalism.

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Tom,

I hate to break it to you but Cuba, North Korea, China and Iran have more "responsible media" than we do here in the US.....

"Responsible media" is like saying "good smelling poop", does not exist.

BTW I was the youngest commercial lobsterman in the history of the state of NH (long story) and I was fishing alone at the age of 11. Everyone who knew my parents thought they were smoking crack because they were not "boaty" types... This sort of idiotic judgemental behavior has been going on forever. The masses or "If you do something differently than I do, you are crazy" crowd is only getting larger and will continue to do so... Sadly it seems if you don't fit into the "Urban soccer mom / Suburban/Escalade driving" mode of parenting then you are simply doing it wrong...

Our daughter is the happiest kid I know, and she loves the boat...! She has been asking all winter when we get to start sailing again..

Sticking with the theme of Mimsy's post........

This was within 5 minutes of her trying a paddle board. We had friends on board who had a 9 year old son who was petrified of the ocean, yet our 6 year old was paddling around to the other boats and chatting them up like a politician on the stump.... Our friends were wetting their pants the entire time she was in the water.... Non boaties....


When my wife told some friends at a book club get together that we had bought our daughter a kayak one of them nearly dropped a wine glass; "But she's only 4 that's not safe."....

Boat kids are FUN kids..

Horse Rides On the Boom:


Island Exploration:


She LOVES the pram's...


While all the kids of the Soccer mom's were at home playing video games Zozo was on a remote island enjoying a lobster bake..


Oh and we know judgmental idiots. You should have seen the flak we took for this photo, which graced the cover of a local sailing rag..


Ignore the judgmental......


To all the non-boaty types out there who think they have parenting all figured out, but no one else does, I give a big one fingered salute / FU !

I raised a child circumnavigating (she was 3 months old when we took off) and she turned out to be a great person.
That someone would presume to say that raising a child on a sailboat is in anyway wrong, especially dangerous for the child or akin to abuse, angers me beyond words.
How many of you criticizing the Kaufmans right now, are actually even raising your own children, or are both parents working and you are expecting day care, after school care and the school system to do it for you? How many of you are so caught up in chasing the almighty dollar that you just don't spend the time you would like to with your kids?
I was with my daughter 24/7/365 until she was at an age when her education became a necessity, and she went off to a Swiss boarding school. Which would you think was actually a better and safer way to raise a child, boat or not?
I think there is the very real possibility, because of the huge publicity this case is getting, that our meddlesome government may stick it's nose into the business of those wishing to sail offshore with their kids, and that should be of immense concern to all of us.
BOAT KIDS ROCK, and most grow up to be incredibly interesting people, if not a bit Bohemian.

Maine Sail said:

Tom,

Oh and we know judgmental idiots. You should have seen the flak we took for this photo, which graced the cover of a local sailing rag..

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I can't see what's wrong with that photo. Maybe they aren't used to kids like ours, that spend a lot of time, on the water?

I guess we've all got 'em..

Look out Tom.. prepare to be vilified for allowing that youngster on/in the water without a PFD

BubbleheadMd said:

Did you read his post, or did you just look at the pretty pictures?

There are people who feel that young children engaging in even the simplest water sports, even closely supervised with chase boats, is the height of irresponsibility. Our society is getting to be quite demanding that we all "homogenize", and do the same thing.

That's who the "FU" was directed at.

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Yea, I did, it just seemed misplaced given the current controversy and debate surrounding Rebel Heart. That seems like a very different scenario from the "boating" kids that many of us here have, myself included. Here is my son having a blast on a beautiful summer day (as all the other kids in the pictures above). I can guarantee that he would not have fun being confined to our boat for 30-40 days even in the best of conditions, let alone when things get nasty and you can hardly stand up for days on end.

caberg said:

Yea, I did, it just seemed misplaced given the current controversy and debate surrounding Rebel Heart. That seems like a very different scenario from the "boating" kids that many of us here have, myself included. Here is my son having a blast on a beautiful summer day (as all the other kids in the pictures above). I can guarantee that he would not have fun being confined to our boat for 30-40 days even in the best of conditions, let alone when things get nasty and you can hardly stand up for days on end.

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So, don't take him, you're the parent. What is sad is that it seems YOU know what is best for other peoples kids, not just your own...?. Castro, Hitler and Stalin also knew what was best for everyone too.... Sing along "little boxes, on the hill side, little boxes made of.......

I have many friends who grew up as cruising kids, crossed ponds, went around the world etc. etc. etc. Many are now cruising couples, with kids, crossing ponds and sailing around the world.. Kids on world cruising boats are NOT new. Where were you guys two weeks, two years ago or 30 years ago when this same exact thing, cruising with kids, was happening. Oh yeah there was no media driven, hysterical band wagon to jump on before Eric & Charlotte....

Remember there are people out there that think what you did off the back of your boat is irresponsible too. You judge, yet there are those who would judge you just as poorly.

It is a SAD, SAD, SAD day in the boating community when we judge our own negatively because we know better how to raise their kids than they do...:hothead

Just yesterday a 33 year old mother passed out behind the wheel of her car, luckily she had pulled over. The cops found her car with the kids in the back seat saying "mommy won't wake up".. This happened a few miles from our house. I think Eric & Charlote's kids are FAR BETTER OFF at sea than with a parents like we see far too many of.....

$hit happens on the mainland at far greater percentages than at sea, yet some sailors want to sit behind a keyboard and get all catty wumpus on those sailors who make different decisions than they do about how they and their family "cruise"..... Sheesh...

I think we'd all do better criticizing the families who refused to vaccinate, and have now caused another measles outbreak, rather than attacking our own........ Where is the outrage on that?

I suppose we could just mandate that all outpost villages in Alaska, Newdfoundland, Iceland etc. all get shut down due to the lack of proximity to medical care??? Heck close down half the islands in the So Pacific too as they are often weeks away from adequate medical care too... Any parent that chooses to raise kids in any of those villages or islands is just crazy... Tongue FIRMLY in cheek....

Sorry but I have been on the receiving end of this sort of BS since I was a kid, and it is RIDICULOUS.

I love all these photos of kids on boats.

Everyone will have a different experience, but for us, when they were the youngest aboard, they would have been well suited for long distance on a sailboat.

As babies and toddlers, the boat was a whole world to them. Sea berths were easily fashioned(they sleep a lot at this age), safe play areas with lee cloths in several berths, the cockpit well with a little water in it formed a perfect swimming pool for toddlers(in calm conditions). Best of all, when we were sailing, we spent every minute together.

But we(parents) were not up for crossing oceans or long term cruising. Yet during a few short cruises, one like this to the Bahamas from New England, they were perfectly suited having just turned 2 and 3.

From this age on though, their world was a beach. We sailed from beach, to beach, to beach,...