Boating with Kids & Toddlers: Top Safety Tips & Rules

Spending time out on the water with the family is a great way to enjoy the long, lazy days of summer. Teaching your son to fish or towing your daughter around on the wake tube offers you a way to have fun and bond with your kids. However, kids are not adults, and they are ignorant of safety rules.

As a parent, it’s your job to ensure that your kids have a safe and enjoyable experience out on the water. Whether you’re at the local lake or going to deep waters offshore, parents must have everything they need on hand to keep their children safe.

According to a 2000 survey by the NMMA and the Impulse Research Corporation, nurturing a passion for boating brings several benefits to your kid’s physical and mental health. The results of the study show the following.

• Kids who boat are more physically fit and stronger than kids who lead a sedentary lifestyle.
• Kids that boat are more outgoing and extroverted and more open to embracing new opportunities in life.
• Kids that boat tend to develop leadership characteristics.
• Kids that boat develop better problem-solving skills.
• Boating brings the family unit together, increasing the bond between all members.

Whether you’re taking the kids on a fishing trip or a cruise down the river, boating offers you a way to connect as a family and strengthen your bod between each other.

However, you’re going to need to keep them safe. Kids don’t understand the rules of the water if you don’t explain them to them. Kids have no experience, and they rely on their parents to keep them safe and away from danger.

We put together this guide to boating with kids and safety tips to ensure your family has the experience of a lifetime out on the water.

Top Safety Tips and Rules for Boating with Kids

Here is a selection of tips curated to give you everything you need to know about hitting the ocean, river, or lake with your boat and your kids. We’ll discuss preparation for boating and behavior onboard the vessel.

Get them in the Water as Early as Possible

Teaching your kids to swim is a good idea if you want to avoid the stress and worry of them falling overboard. If one of your kids land in the water, you want them to be strong enough and competent enough in their swimming skills to tread water until you come back for the rescue.

Teaching your kids to swim at an early age brings them additional confidence in the water. When the pool is like their second home, they’ll find the ocean even more exciting. The younger, the better; if you don’t have a pool at home, sign the kids up for swim classes at a local facility.

You don’t need your kids to be the next Michael Phelps before getting onto the boat. However, strong swimming skills can save their life, and avoid a tragedy.

Learn Basic First Aid Principles and CPR

All parents should undergo CPR and trauma response training. Courses in sea safety offer you everything you need to learn the basics of how to respond in a medical emergency when at sea or out on the river or lake.

Consider joining DAN (Diver Alert Network) if you’re a scuba diver. DAN provides emergency assistance when something goes wrong during a dive, providing airlifts and decompression to avoid serious health issues and treatment costs.

Childproof the Boat

Most yachts are surprisingly childproof. They feature rounded edges in the design of the boat and locking cupboards. However, parents should inspect all interior edges and file down sharp corners. Installing bumpers on corners also prevents head injuries during falls.

Educate your children on the importance of electrical power to the boat and show them the electrical board and batteries. Tell them about the dangers of electrical shock and how it can lead to hospitalization.

Instruct your kids never to touch the electrical DB board or the battery bank and only to call you first if they think something is wrong with it. We recommend installing a cabinet around the electrical components to prevent accidents.

Tell your kids not to flip any switches unless they are in the living quarters. Cover all the electrical outlets to prevent accidental shock and keep gear stowed away properly in the cockpit to stop your kids from playing around with your speargun or other hazardous equipment.

Secure all cabin doors, lock all storage compartments, and install access gates around staircases for small children. Remove anything from the deck that may cause your child to trip.

Install Lifeline Nets

Installing a life net around the edge of the deck will catch small children if they fall overboard. Sure, it might ruin the look of the boat and disturb the view over the sides of the vessel.

However, it adds an extra layer of security to your boat, reducing the risk of small children ending up in the water.

Life Jackets are Essential

Life jackets are essential for everyone aboard the vessel, regardless of the location, the age of the person, their experience on the water, or any qualification.

A life jacket could end up saving your life or your kid’s life during an emergency or an accident. If the boat travels at speed and turns suddenly, the force may throw your child from the deck, knocking them unconscious.

It’s common for unconscious people to float face-down in the water until they drown and eventually sink. The lifejacket turns them right-side-up in the water, allowing them to breathe. It keeps the person afloat until rescue finds them, even if they are not conscious during the ordeal.

So, life jackets reduce drowning risk, and they are the most important lifeline to your child’s safety while on the water. Life jackets should meet USCG criteria and support the child’s weight. We recommend choosing life jackets with bright, neon-colored pontoons for additional visibility in low-light conditions.

Bring the Harness

Small kids are curious, and they may put themselves in danger on the boat without realizing it. On top of that, kids always seem to get away from their parent’s attention right when they least expect it. The last thing you need is to put your toddler down, only to turn around a moment later and see them going overboard.

Safety nets are a good idea to keep your kids from falling in the water. However, a harness and leash are also an idea and a great way to prevent your kids from getting too close to the edge of the boat. The leash attaches to the child’s PFD, allowing you to grasp the leash and pull the child abord if they fall in the water.

Establish Ground Rules and Enforce Them

When the family is ready to get out onto the water for the first time, sit everyone down for a briefing session. Explain the rules of boating and how you expect them to behave on the trip.

You don’t need to be strict; the idea is for everyone to have the most amount of fun possible. However, it’s important to outline risky behavior and actions that could cause severe injury or loss to family members.

After you get back to the marina after a day on the water, sit everyone down again for a debriefing. Explain the members’ actions that might have caused problems and reward the safety compliance.

Practice Safety Procedures

Make sure that your kids understand the rules. Take everyone onboard the boat and go through safety procedures such as what to do if someone falls overboard.

Run the safety drill to ensure that everyone has some experience with how to handle the worst if it occurs. Make sure that the kids know how to react before going out on the water.

When the adrenaline flows during a crisis at sea, there’s no telling what will happen if the kids have absolutely no training.

Teach Them the Radio

Small kids can learn how to use the radio in emergencies. There are times where the adult onboard might be unconscious or incapacitated and unable to use the radio themselves.

Teaching the kids how to operate the radio and hail help could save the family from a loss. Channel 16 is the emergency channel, so prepare your kids for emergencies and give them lessons on how to communicate with the Coast Guard during an emergency.

Create Safe Zones

Kids need a safe zone to go to when the weather and seas turn bad. You don’t want them up on deck when the swells get large, and the wind picks up.

Make sure that the cabin or berth in the vessel has some of their toys to keep them occupied when things get challenging with the weather. You can even bring a TV and a games console with you if you have the space and the electricity to support it.

Send them for a Medical Checkup

If you’re planning on taking the kids out to sea for weeks, months, or years at a time, it’s a good idea to send them to the doctor for a checkup. If you’re spending time at sea, you’ll need to ensure that your kids are in good health.

If they have health issues, you’ll need to ensure you have medication and everything you need on board to treat the problem if it occurs at sea. The doctor will take a look at your kid’s general health, check their skin, lungs, and heart, and their respiratory health.

Prevent Sunburn

The sun is brutal on the water, providing a strong reflection of its surface that gets under your hat. As a result, kids can end up burning their faces, and they need sunblock for ultimate protection. Kids’ skin is less durable than adult skin, and it receives a sunburn easier.

The last thing you want is for your kids to develop sunstroke out on the boat. Sun strike increases the chances of the child developing skin cancer. Melanoma affects 1-million Americans, and every year there are nearly 200,000 cases diagnosed.

As a result, parents need to ensure they have a 50-Factor sunscreen on hand at all times when they are out on the water. Apply the sunscreen every two to four hours, and choose a waterproof product from a leading brand.

It’s a good idea to buy a sunblock chapstick for their lips. The chapstick has a stickier application, allowing for longer protection than standard sunblock lotion.

Avoid Hypothermia and Hyperthermia

When it’s a hot day on the water, the kids will moan about wearing their life jackets, asking you if they can take them off.

Make sure you don’t give in to this request that could put your kid’s life at risk. Instead, make sure you have plenty of drinks and snacks to keep everyone refreshed and hydrated. Snacks are essential to help kids keep their energy levels up while out on the water.

On cold days, wet clothing and life jackets can cause your kids to get the chills. If you’re heading out on cold days, make sure your kids wear wetsuits if they plan to get in the water or if the boat generates a lot of ocean spray.

The wetsuits form a thin layer of water between the neoprene rubber and the skin, keeping them warm and protected against the wind and cold.

Inspect the Medical Kit and Restock

Every boat must have a fully-stocked medical kit onboard. The medical kit needs to contain everything you need in the event of a medical emergency occurring on board. Various boating shops and online vendors offer fully-equipped, specialized marine medical kits.

However, you don’t need a specialized kit, and you’re probably going to save some money going with a more affordable, standard medical kit. Remember to get a tourniquet and take a first-aid class to teach you how to apply it.

Order anything you need to replenish your kit before heading out for your family adventure. We also recommend packing plenty of bug repellant if you’re out on lakes, dams, or rivers. Pests can become a problem, especially in the early mornings and evenings.

Crew Out the Responsibilities

Keeping the kids happy on board the boat can be challenging during long ocean-going trips. Kids need visual stimulation, and when they are out at sea, away from their phones, they will get bored eventually. With nothing but miles of blue water in all directions, how do you keep your kids engaged out on the water?

When kids get bored with a situation, they are less likely to do it again. So, you could end up buying that boat for the family, but the kids end up hating it; what a waste – right? Here are a few tips we think will work to keep younger kids more engaged in the boating experience.

The first thing you can do is bring your kids in on the boating experience by assigning them specific responsibilities for handling the launching and docking of the boat and running it out on the water. Teach your kids how to handle the sails or control the throttle on an engine.

Assign them specific tasks like tying the boat off at the dock or lining it up to the trailer. The more you draw them into the boating experience, the better the chances they’ll want to do it again.

Teach them the Cool Stuff

When you’re out on the water, you can teach your kids to fish or enjoy watersports like wakeboarding. However, make sure they comply with the safety rules and teach them how to behave in the water if they fall from the ski or hook a large fish.

Fishing is fun, but some families may prefer watersports or vice versa. Whatever your family enjoys doing, it’s important to ensure all your kids get in on the action and they all engage in the time you spend aboard the boat.

Whatever pastimes or water sports you end up doing with your kids, keep safety in mind at all times. Safety is the critical component in boating that many parents overlook, and many will live to regret those decisions they make when something goes wrong. By following these tips, you mitigate that risk.

Wrapping Up

Some parents might find themselves so lost in the safety aspect of boating that they reduce their experience with their family out on the water. While safety is important, it’s also important to realize that you’re all there for some fun.

A boat provides you with a great way to spend quality time with the family. However, we’re sure that you would instantly regret it if it caused a loss for everyone. That’s why it’s important to assess the risk of introducing boating as a family activity before taking them out on the water.

Follow these tips, and you’ll ensure your family has a safe, secure, and fun time in the boat.