The Diving Lifestyle (for Parents)

[docuw]

We have a 1 and 4 year old. We have done three things. 1) We flew grandma out to the house and she stayed with the girls for a week. 2) We had the other grandma and grandpa fly to Coz with us, and they would watch the girls for us in the mornings. 3) This time we have a nanny that we are going to fly with us. She stays with the girls while we dive, and then its family time in the afternoons/dinners.

 

[manus]

Last Sunday I went back underwater after one year on the dry land
My little one is now 3 months old, and I could afford the pleasure of being weightless again thanks to my mother, who came along the dive site and looked after him.

Ok for weekends close to home (which is already a great bonus!) but what about a nice diving holiday??
Me and my husband were thinking about resorts with baby care, for example in the Maldives you can find many, so you can leave your baby having some fun with other kids while you're diving..... Some offer this service for free.
Or as already suggested, we will dive separately, one dive each.... we will see if and how it works...
I like a lot also the idea of the friends, to help each other

 

[BabyDuck]

my mother! she's wonderful and likes to take care of him. i try not to abuse that, but i certainly do use it!

 

[fjpatrum]

You get the idea. Boy meets girl. Boy Marries Girl. Nine months later Boy and Girl are Mommy and Daddy

My wife and I are about to celebrate my son's first birthday this weekend. Diving was our thing. Now I practically have to schedule time for a haircut three weeks in advance. Our dive count in '09 was around 125 dives. This year, I think I just hit 10.

So to all the experienced Parent Divers out there, what works? How do you make time, and arrangements to go out diving when you have little ones? Who watches the kids? How did the birth of your kids affect your diving, and when did it get better?

We have gotten to do some neat dives. We had a nice wreck trip planned to Lake Michigan, but we got weathered out. Also made a nice little family trip out to San Diego. Gone are the spur of the moment trips out to the local caves, and heading out to catch a boat out of Wisconsin and driving all the way up the night before. Gone are the two week non stop diving trips to Bonaire. Now they have become family trips, and if you can get diving in, that's a bonus...

So tell me, what's your parental diving lifestyle like?

Tom

I get to dive on business trips occasionally, and once or twice during family trips, occasionally. My wife is a non-diver and she's very supportive of me doing my own thing but I don't want to push it. I got about 12 dives in over the last 14 months or so. I figure if I can average 1 dive a month I'll still be happy. The family is always more important and snorkeling is easy, even with a 2 year old.

 

[fjpatrum]

I have no advise for the diving with a young one, however, what I have found to work for us as far as keeping the kid involved, and teaching them to behave in different places, is to take them with you where ever you go and teach them how to behave in those situations. Like you,
when we had our youngest, there was no family around, we moved too often to trust anyone with our kid, she went and still does go pretty much everywhere with us. She is 13 now, and is welcome pretty much where ever we go, meetings, party's, out to dinner, I think only because she does not act like a brat. Most people that meet her think she is in high school rather than middle school. It was never tolerated to misbehave in these places. Side note, we did not tolerate her acting up at home either. No whining or crying to get your way.

Just a side note: I have 2 older girls, and they were raised very different, with family around and helping. What I have found, is that with the family around and feeling they can send the kid home at any time they could also spoil the kid and send them home and us parents would have to deal with it. That did not make for a very welcomed kid in the end, for anyone involved. She is OW jr. certified and with 40 dives under her belt, we have never had any issues with her not being welcomed for any diving activities.

Good Luck and congrats!

Edit: A comparison, my husbands sister kids, ugh!!!! The three of them are totally different, I think of them as the devils spawn. But they were raised very different, allowed to run around in restaurants and such. They are very hard to be around even for a second.

Those of us who are/were in the military are very familiar with this situation and let me say from first hand experience, this advice is spot on. We always went everywhere with our parents and did "family" things with them that we didn't consider "family things" just hanging out. My parents always got comments on how much better we behaved than our peers. The same holds true for my kids (16 and 2 now) so far. People are always amazed at how well behaved they are, despite the fact that we aren't especially strict about their behavior (because we don't need to be).

As for diving... my kids aren't certified, but my daughter has snorkeled above me on manta dives in HI and we've done manatee snorkels in FL together as well as "standard snorkeling" in HI, FL, and other places. I even built a little floatee "window" that my 2 year old (then 1) sat in and could look down through the window and see the fishes so he "snorkeled" with us. It was an awesome experience for everyone. Consider exposing the children to the things you enjoy if you really want to keep doing it a lot.

 

[DoctorBob]

When your kids are a bit older, say 5 or 6, you can take them to Kids Sea Camp. It is an excellent program where you bring your kids and you can drop them off at 8:30 and pick them up at 3:30. The parents can dive all day and they have all kinds of activities for the kids. When your kids are 10 they can get certified. We have been taking our kids since they were 6. My kids are now 13 and 15. My youngest has her advanced open water certification and my oldest is a rescue diver.
Go to familydiveadventures.com. Or kidsseacamp.com

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Ever watch a bunch of Canada geese along the waterfront? Do what they do ... find other "parent divers" and form a cooperative. Bring the kiddos ... pool your resources ... and take turns watching the goslings while momma and poppa geese go for a nice paddle around the pond.

Diver's Day Care ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[rhwestfall]

Ever watch a bunch of Canada geese along the waterfront? Do what they do ...

make tons of noise and crap all over the place?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

make tons of noise and crap all over the place?

All kids do that ... many adults do too ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[themagni]

My wife doesn't dive. We have 2 kids, aged 5 and 7. I don't get to dive as often as I'd like, which would be every week. What you'll have to do is dive locally or work out special arrangements when you travel. The last time I was travelling for work (out to Halifax) I packed dive gear and went on a charter one Sunday.

There are night dives as well, so you could get some lights, get a sitter for after bedtime, and make it a weekly thing you and your wife do. Some people go out to dinner and a movie, why not go out for a dive and a dive? I went on one night dive that upon surfacing, I commented to my buddy, "the only thing wrong with this evening is that you're not my wife."

My kids are interested in diving. My youngest always wants to help rinse my gear, and the oldest was asking about Bubble Blower parties. (I said no since it would be a tease to do it when she 8 and she couldn't dive for 8 more years)