neighbor kids

I 100% agree. We all take care of our stuff. Why should someone else trash it. We all have rules and other people need to follow. If not, they do not go or they can buy their own boat and trash it all they want. I have a great crew I hang with. We all have boats and we all help each other take care of them. I say never invite those people again. If you decide to take them out, explain the rules. If they do not understand then say it would be best if we cancell. If this neighbor is a friend, then he or she should understand.
Tazz

"He was going to walk onto the boat with water shoes on right from the dirty dock so i stopped him and said "no shoes"! He got angry said "it's a boat!" until i said "would you walk all over the interior of your leather car seats with shoes on? Why would you walk on my boat like that?" "

that is the best!

Wolfman, i like yours
"My boat, my rules. You don't like my rules, go get your own boat."

MrsKane--you guys are doing good--your kids are very repectfull, well done!

Guest kids have never been a problem. One mom thinks I shouldn’t make the kids work so much, but they want on the water and I am not a one man Bed Breakfast and Board shop.
One boy I know actually declines to come out because everyone works at my house – but not his.

I asked a kid on his first trip this weekend (after teardown) if it was too much work to come back. Three hours to put four boats and the lake house ino rder plus empty the garage & clean the floor so all 8 boys could sleep there when they arrived– not trivial work. He would LOVE to come back.

I treat them all like my own and often the parents are a little surprised at the kids’ capacity.
E. g. after a fall you do not ask - are you ok? Are you ok? Are you OK!? . . . You ask if they have another run in them, they will tell you if they are not ok.

Kids are on KP every night (ages 8-14), never perfect but getting better, they cannot learn by watching you work. Usually someone helps finish up but they are getting pretty good at it.

I have been known to let some kids sit out KP, if he is hauling the boat stuff out, wiping down the boats, helping the younger kids etc. I’ll give them a pass for seeing what need to be done and doing it. Of course most of my guest kids are Boy Scouts and they end up helping their buddies anyway.

In other news my son at age 12 took a boat to and from the dock on his own for the first time. I noticed three other boys had taken the boating course and were being taught to do that this weekend. I consider boating a great place to train responsibility.
It was a great weekend.

So, I have a lot of rules too -- for safety, care of equipment, and shared workload. Take the kids, leave the parents behind.

On a tangent - it is a hug no-no in the scouts, leaving early and ditching the campout clean-up to the other boys but I am going to have to implement some sort of adult training. This was a big weekend and I have noticed a trend of adults leaving before teardown. I’m fine with once in awhile “having” to get back but not packing up once all summer is getting old. I took Friday off to setup on my own, that was my choice and I like the quite time but for those of you that are guests, we hosts eventually notice who is there when stuff needs to be packed, unpacked, cleaned and stored.

I suggest if you ride with anyone on a regular basis and they say don’t worry, I’ll clean it when I get home – find out when and stop by to help. I can assure you, you are an army of one. By this point in the summer, even the rabid boaters are tired of solo boat care.
I have some regulars that just step up and handle stuff like food planning, who will bring what – it is a huge help.

Some tips for guests from a regular host:

If you are coming out a day late to a lake house ALWAYS call twice, once in the am and once at the store to pick-up what is forgotten, that is also a small thing that helps a lot when it is 40 minutes to Wal-Mart.

If you are a first time guest you may be told to just bring your suit and a towel - that is what I tell folks.

Here are some things you can bring that have made a great impression on me, - frozen bottled water, it works for ice and you have drinks for the boat that do not stain, I allow coke etc. but some folks do not. In fact, never show up to any boat without at least a bag of ice.

Your own cleaning rag and bottle of vinyl cleaner – even if it is not Aero 303 - I am always out and will use any good brand in a pinch.

I’ve had a Moomba four years, every winter I buy about 10 rash guard shirts ($15-$19), I consider them essential, and I am down to four – I do not know where they go. Rather than cash (which I have never taken) - plex goggles or a nice rash guard shirt or two will get you remembered.

At Christmas, if you ride tubes with someone a lot, I switch out my 4 man lines every year and buy 4 at a pop so they are all the same length. I snapped a little rope once and it came back into the boat. I’m big on big, new ropes every year or so.

I’ve also gotten a rope swing, framed water pictures and even a toilet paper holder (a moose with a spare role box under it). If it was a gift, I know who it was from. One guy made custom t-shirts for everyone, nice design, nice shirt, very thoughtful.

All of this takes more time than an ATM but if you are hitching a ride, someone has more than a little time vested in you already. Having been a host a number of years I realize that I was never a very good guest – which may explain why I wasn’t one all that often :)

Finally, watch the rope. If a kid is having trouble getting suited up, ask if you can pull it in.

I don’t “expect” this or that from my guests, but it is remembered when they take a little time to show their appreciation.

I sort of hijacked this thread – oh well.

SD2

tx Sled, you will love having a lake house - but it is a lot of work, you better love it.

I notice the FAE thread and my comments are gone. I suspect I have the highest deleted percentage of anyone still allowed on the forum.

I'm thinking of building my own Moomba with gum wrappers - I'll start that thread here soon.

(if you do not get that, you went to work today)

SD2, I had a lake home in Canada before I moved south and started my family. My wife and I bought the property about 4 yrs ago and started last year. If you check out my albums you will get a thread showing the build. I'm pretty sure I understand lots of work, as my house is on an Island with no bridge, everything goes over on a barge. To tell you the truth there is no where else in the world I'd rather be. Even if I have no big project or material to move on I always find something to putter with out there. It is my little slice of heavan.

easy remedy, don't bring their kids back out.. your being thoughtful and giving their kids a chance on your boat, you can easily take that away.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfeman131

simple for me and it goes like this:

My boat, my rules. You don't like my rules, go get your own boat.

Totally agree.. I'm the captain.. dont like the rules.. walk the plank! :cool: