Teaching family. Good or bad idea?

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I think you've gotten some good advice thus far so I'll only add this; If there is any doubt in your mind that you will not be able to maintain your professional integrity and objectivity throughout your brother's training then hire an instructor who can.
 
So much depends on family dynamics. The default answer is "Just don't do it." You'll never make a right mess of things if you go that way. On the other hand, for some people given particulars of their families, it *can* work out, but you can't count on that in the general case.

With my family, if any of them decided they wanted to dive, I'd teach them without a second thought. All our various personalities and history fit together in such a way that it would work (and already has with two of them). On the other hand, I know more than a few friends who I would pass off immediately without ever getting near a class.

So, the simple answer is don't try it, as it's likely to end in tears. The nuanced answer is *sometimes* for certain combinations of personalities, it can be *wonderful*, but if you guess wrong, it's likely to end in tears. And my personal aside is that if another instructor came up to me and asked me to teach their family member, I would gladly do it free-to-the-instructor (they pay expenses, of course) as a favor to them, and if they want to drop in to help me in the pool sometime, that would be a nice but not at all expected thank you.

(There are two kinds of free, by the way. There's free, meaning "I'll do the bare minimum required to get the card, since I don't value what I'm not paying for." And there's free, meaning "I'm doing this at no charge because I believe it's important enough for me to volunteer my time." If I do it free, it's the latter. On the other hand, if the student is of the former definition, they can pay full-rate and I'll buy the instructor lunch on the next dive trip. :wink:)
 
I tried to teach a GF of mine Adv Nitrox.

I gave up during confined when she launched a stage tank at my head :shakehead:
 
This thread is very interesting to me as I'm currently working on my divemaster and have plans to continue onto the instructor level in the future.

I've thought about teaching friends but I've come to a similar conclusion that it would be difficult to establish a good student/teacher relationship. I'm not sure if I would be comfortable teaching Open Water to friends/family.

For friends that I dive with, I've been told I make a great mentor and would be a good teacher as I tend to be very patient with new divers (I can't say the same about being patient with other aspects in my life,only diving).

What are thoughts about teaching specialties to friends/family that are already Open Water certified?
 
As the posts to this point illustrate, there is no correct answer. I have personal knowledge of very positive experiences of father teaching son, uncle teaching nephew, and similar dynamics. I also am aware of attempts to teach family members that did not work out. While I know of no brother instructor/student relationships, I suspect that there will be no problem if the student acknowledges the instructor role and the two of you are otherwise amiable toward each other. If you go forward, do treat the instruction as you would with any other student- no need to become more distant or more forgiving. I have three brothers. One or two I would not hesitate to teach to dive. The other one.. I'm not so sure. I will never tell which one that is.
DivemasterDennis
 
Oh, ClayJar brought up a good point -- with the exception of my wife no one learns for free! The only discounts I offer are to military and disable vets. Not in one of those two categories and you pay full price.

Michael
 
Thanks for all the advice thus far! It's about what I expected as far as the pitfalls and expectations. I guess it really CAN go either way and it does strongly depend on the relationship of the people involved and the personalities as well.

I'm thinking what I'll do is start off teaching him, and during the "softball stuff" on day one and two, like the swim assessment, gear assembly and minor skills, etc. I'll be assessing things and if they are working, proceed forward, with, as one poster put it, the option at any time to hand him off to another instructor.

I think it'll work, but I'm gonna proceed cautiously. Like a porcupine on the make.
 
I taught my older brother, my son, my sister-in-law, and two of my nephews to dive. We had no issues. It all depends on how you relate to each other. I wouldn't hesitate to teach a family member to dive.
 

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