What you do with your leisure time may be the biggest decision you make in 2013. In this post, we’ll look at Family Boating as a leisure time activity and the many ways it can help your family create fantastic memories that will last a lifetime.

A Different Environment

If you want to make an impression on your kids, a great way to do that is to get them out of their normal environment. I’m not just talking about the walls of your home or yard or school or church. I’m talking about terra firma itself. Being on the water for an extended time is a completely different sensation than being on firm, hard land.

Ever been part of a team building exercise (think high ropes adventure course)? Leadership experts will tell you that a great way to make bonds is to have shared experiences outside your normal environment.

Feeling the boat glide through the water is fun and exciting and something they’ll carry with them for ages.

Close Proximity

All families are made up of people with different interests and involvements. That usually means everybody heads in different directions and does different things.

But when you go boating together, you are necessarily going to be together in the same location for several hours. There’s no way for the kids to run off to play with the kids down the street or sit in front of the X-Box. Your spouse is not going to run off doing errands or checking email.

Use this time to get to know each other better. Talk about your prior experiences boating or find out what is going on in your child’s life. In this digital age, we sometimes lose the ability to converse well with real audible words spoken through real mouths. This is a great opportunity to practice that skill.

Staying Outside

Made To Stick is a great book with the subtitle “Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die”. It is a life-changing book which shows you how to make things “stick” in a person’s mind. Since we’re talking “making memories” in this post, we can certainly draw on this book. The second chapter is simply titled “Unexpected”. When something unexpected happens, our brains become alert and memories are made.

Each time you go boating, you’ll be outside where something unpredicted is likely to happen at any moment. You’ll see wildlife, a beautiful sunset, a school of fish, and even if the weather turns bad, you’ll make memories in the rain together.

Boating is a great way to keep your family in a different environment, together, talking, outside, and making memories that will last a lifetime.

Share Your Memories

How about sharing a boating memory of your own in the comments. Or a memory from a similar (different environment, close proximity, outdoor/unexpected) environment.

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