My youngest was born May 13, on Scarab July 4th! Even laughed when I busted off the engines. He's a "boat-head" just like me!

Put the kids in a boat as soon as you can -- Safety First.

Obviously don't bring a new born on board and try to set everyone's hair on fire-- that would be crazy.

However, we took our son and then daughter out as soon as we could get a life preserver on them. I don't have a performance boat so hitting 80mph wasn't in the cards- we would go slow and just cruise around the lake - most of the time they fell asleep in mom's arms.

Now as our son got a little older I would let him drive - always standing right beside him and guiding as best as I could -- Kids always want to go fast - and have no fear - but the dad in me would ALWAYS throttle it back - finally it got to the point in which he asked to take the boat out by himself -- He was around 15-16 years old and did a great job- today when he says he's taking the boat (seems always with a full take of fuel purchased by mom and dad) I have no worries. He is a very responsible driver and safety conscious.

All the best

3pointstar

We had our son out on the boat at 8 months. We have a performance boat for poker runs etc., and a pontoon for the kid stuff and relaxing. It's nice to have both.
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Yeah that would be nice to have both, except I'd have to give up some other things and probably wouldn't have time to use both. Great pics, I guess the one with the kid in diapers pretty much answered my question Dave M, LOL I think mine is going to want to drive right away too!.

I don't have anything close to the caliber of most people here, but it's already my son's favorite activity. He's 19 months, and every night, once we get home from daycare, he runs to the garage and goes "DADDY BOAT" So I toss him in, shake it on the trailer, and we make "BIG POWA NOISE" acting like we have sterlings on the back of the 14' v bottom. Here's a pic from Sunday.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...psbsyadu1w.jpg

just don't try this with your kids!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3nJgN1Iyt0

Just so you know starting kids on the boat at a young age may and probably will lead to them being broke like most of us do to boat related expenses.

I am looking for a new boat with a 4 year old grandson my gladiator is just not right for kids need to sell and look into a top gun.

I have had a boat since both of mine started to walk. They were finding their boat legs before walking on dry land. Open bow is nice, but the small kids usually dont like the wind and you will have to store all their rafts and beach toys, etc.

We needed more room, pontoon size room, but we love our gofast. CC didnt have a sunpad to chill and climb up the back. They also feel a lot safer in deep sides. As for the speed, they run back and forth between the cockpit and cuddy till they got old enough to stay in one place.

Video is a lil short. Didnt know how to make file small enough to up load!
This was sunday coming back across lake Pontchartrain (lil 20 mile run) Kids are 8 and 11 now.

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