I’m taking my son out on the boat for the first time ever tomorrow. He’s six and he has officially passed all his swimming lessons, which means it’s safe to take him on the boat. He will be wearing a life jacket, obviously, and he won’t be out of our sight the entire time, but it is an extremely exciting day!
While I have been taking my son to his swimming lessons, my wife has been getting the boat prepared. We’re very big fans of boating, fishing and being on the water, so we want our son to be included in our favourite pastime. My wife has made a big effort to make sure our boat is child friendly – we’ve even installed something we’ve never bothered with before: fishing rod holders. In the Melbourne CBD, it’s really common for parents with young children to go out boating with them. We’ve decided to join a club of that exact nature so that our son can make friends and really get into boating as a hobby.
Tomorrow is going to be the most monumental day of our lives as a family. I think it’s going to completely change the course of our lives forever, and we’re all really excited about it. My son has been talking about it since he started swimming lessons. After his first day he thought he was ready to go on the boat, it was very cute.
Well, we went out on the boat! We left bright and early this morning so that we could be on the water when it was mostly still. We also wanted to show our son how to unclip a boat latch without any distractions from nearby boaters. It went extremely well. We’ll keep showing him what to do so that by the time he can go for his boat license when he’s twelve, he’s ready to go.