pennypue
Contributor
Wow, this thread has some amazing things in it. Some which I learned the hard way. My 13, almost 14 year old daughter was just certified down in Mexico. I prearranged this, knew who her primary instructor would be and I was present at all times. She did fantastic. She is incredibly mature for her age.
But there is one skill that needs to be drilled into the kids heads. QUESTION AUTHORITY. And I don't mean when they want to push safety limits. The exact opposite, when they think their limits are being pushed. That's a tough call for ANY child to make to their parent, heck it's tough for many adults. My daughter was buddied with the instructor on an open water dive, as she should have been. I almost pulled the dive because I did not like how he was handling her. But I did not want to interfere. I had my eye on her the whole time, and she was doing great. There was a pretty good current we were in on our second dive of the day. This was not one of the instructors I was familiar with previously. He was certified and qualified to handle her, she believed it, I believed it. It was her first day on a boat dive, and her fourth open water. What I saw was a young lady that handled her skill sets with ease. Flooded mask, mask removal, no problems. Long story, but she was unhappy with the current, heck uncomfortable. She completed the dive, but was upset AFTERWARDS.
We had some discussions and I am happy to say, Lesson learned. She will now call her own dives. The next day she called a fresh water dive in a cenote, not because of the caverns, but because of the wetsuit!! She was not comfortable in it. She waited above (part of the time still below ground, she loved the bats) while I completed my dives. THAT'S maturity.
The little girl in that drowned waiting for her dad........not mature enough. A child needs to be able to say NO.
But there is one skill that needs to be drilled into the kids heads. QUESTION AUTHORITY. And I don't mean when they want to push safety limits. The exact opposite, when they think their limits are being pushed. That's a tough call for ANY child to make to their parent, heck it's tough for many adults. My daughter was buddied with the instructor on an open water dive, as she should have been. I almost pulled the dive because I did not like how he was handling her. But I did not want to interfere. I had my eye on her the whole time, and she was doing great. There was a pretty good current we were in on our second dive of the day. This was not one of the instructors I was familiar with previously. He was certified and qualified to handle her, she believed it, I believed it. It was her first day on a boat dive, and her fourth open water. What I saw was a young lady that handled her skill sets with ease. Flooded mask, mask removal, no problems. Long story, but she was unhappy with the current, heck uncomfortable. She completed the dive, but was upset AFTERWARDS.
We had some discussions and I am happy to say, Lesson learned. She will now call her own dives. The next day she called a fresh water dive in a cenote, not because of the caverns, but because of the wetsuit!! She was not comfortable in it. She waited above (part of the time still below ground, she loved the bats) while I completed my dives. THAT'S maturity.
The little girl in that drowned waiting for her dad........not mature enough. A child needs to be able to say NO.