Narrow boat holiday with toddler. Madness?

[Paaseitjes]

We live overseas. Parents live in two former industrial cities about 150 miles apart. Neither sets of parents have houses suitable for a small child. The baby will be about 15 months at the start of next summer. A moving base camp where we start in one city and pootle over to the other, maybe taking grandparents along for a few days at each end, feels like a brilliant idea. No need to cart everything by train or worry about car seats, one lot of baby proofing without offending anyone, and a bit more of a holiday than staying in the suburbs. Is this actually a good idea, or is it sleep deprived madness?

Gosh yes, I didn't see the 150 miles part - that is truly bonkers.

I don't think you are aware how slowly boats go and how long locks take. That's maybe 70-100 hours of cruising.

The people who live on boats with babies and toddlers are not doing that amount of cruising. If they've got a permanent mooring they might only need to move it to top up water. If they're continuous cruisers they just have to find a new mooring.

Something else to bear in mind is that shopping is a hassle. You can get a supermarket delivery to a boat base but how many shops there are along the way is a matter of luck and a bike is very useful.

There are loads of better ways to do a touring holiday surely?

I took a group of teens on a canal holiday once and that was full of rules and supervision, for a toddler, no.

Very sadly, a friend lost their 3yo on a canal holiday (about 20 years ago), when Dad had gone to the pub to get a table for dinner, leaving mum getting ready. Both parents thought the child was with the other...

We did this! Our son is now 9 and has been on the canal boat regularly since he was born. It was fine with careful planning. Our rules / plan have changed over the years but this is what it looked like when he was 2.
Firstly, he had the travel cot so he couldn’t get out while we were asleep. When he woke up the first thing he did was to get his life jacket on (bright orange). At first we had those toddle reins on the back but we removed those when someone in a boat year warned us that if that got caught somewhere it would be worse than him just falling in.
We have a boat with a semi-trad stern so we could close off the back and make it safe when he wanted to play there. Mostly he wanted to be below so we had loads of different things to do. We had an absolute rule of “2 feet on the floor” if he went out the front.
For locks we would leave him below (with the front doors locked) with fun things to do including an iPad with downloaded Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures or Numberblocks. When we knew we had a long flight we would try to get a friend or parent to help.
The other thing we did was get more relaxed about how long everything took. While we was still napping in the daytime, that was the perfect time to plan to do lock flights. In any case, we learned how to find out about playgrounds, and to stop for fun every day. We also learned which pubs had moorings right there to allow adult drinks on the lawn once he was asleep at night.
The other thing we did was prioritise swimming lessons right from the beginning.
At 9, he is now a bit of a cabal expert with his own windlass which he can use on the lighter locks. He can swim better than either of his parents and will proudly tell you that the only one of our family who has ever fallen in is his Dad.
So if you want to do it and plan carefully, go for it.

I couldn’t- it would stress me out having to be on alert all the time.

Why not do a land version and hire an RV to drive from one city the other, stopping at some lovely campsites en route? The grandparents could visit you on the campsites.

I remember my cousin taking her eldest on a canal holiday when the baby was just learning to walk. They came home early. She was terrified every second that the little one would fall in and they all had to go to bed at six when the baby did because there was nowhere to put her cot except in the main living space of the boat and so they couldn't make any sound once she was asleep.

Things might have changed since then, but her hair raising tales of near-disaster put me off until my kids were adults!

As someone else said, a caravan holiday on a holiday park would be good. All your child will want to do at that age is toddle about exploring with you.

Caravan is definitely the answer! Or just air b&b near your relatives. In a bungalow if you don’t like stairs.

Ime (which is extensive as I grew up having boating holidays and my parents bought a boat when they retired and we all came on holiday with our kids) it is fine if you have a minimum of 3 adults so one person can be in charge of children at all times leaving 2 to manage the boat. I am not sure how you would manage locks etc with a toddler and only 2 adults.

I completely get the fear of water, but doesn't everyone velcro themselves to their baby on holiday anyway? Balconies, hotel rooms, holiday homes and campsites are rarely toddler safe. A campsite has cars, bikes, bbqs, lakes etc. If you're camping or in a hotel you have to go to bed with baby, so then it's really not much different. Other people's houses have extension leads and blind cords, fires and under sink cupboards. Even at home he goes in the cot if I have to leave the room now he can roll

Book a large lodge in a cheap and cheerful holiday park with lots of activities and a decent shop and offer to contribute to everyone's train/taxi costs?

Unfortunately caravan parks don't really work because they're very rarely served by proper public transport. Strangely, there aren't many holiday flats in deprived Midlands industrial towns! There are airbnbs, but they're the miserable ones set up for contractors. It feels really mean saying we won't come to visit, but paying to fly the grandparents somewhere nice seems a better option.

We cycle camp here with trailers but that's not really safe in the UK. We're also planning a group children mountain holiday. You can tie the babies to a tree or dangle them from the first bolt while you climb, and mountain huts always have plenty of willing hands to help. You just need to stop them crawling off the mountain!

But nobody dies if you slip up in a travelodge

Can you give any hints on the deprived midlands towns? People might have some intel to share. I live in a deprived midlands town but I could recommend probably five delightful places off the top of my head where people could have a lovely time.

Depending on budget, could you rent somewhere in a pleasant location that’s big enough to house the parents as guests ?

I'm also from the Midlands and there's loads of lovely places. Not all air bnbs are miserable and set up for contractors. Where abouts are you going?
It does sound like you really want to do it and no-one here can convince you otherwise if that's what you've got your heart set on. Or that your not that keen on coming in general which is why you seem resistant to other ideas?
The motor home idea is great.

Train and then taxi. Don't do camping but look for lodge-type holiday parks with an onsite shop and cafe where they'll provide the basics you need like towels.

I struggle to believe that within 150 miles there is no where suitable, give us the town names and I will have a look.

Although if you want them to fly and visit elsewhere, that's fair enough!

I've just been on a canal holiday. I would only consider taking a toddler with 3 adults, one to drive the boat, one to operate the lock, and one to stay in the cabin or on the bank supervising the toddler. They are just too unpredictable and a second's distraction at a lock could be fatal.

So this is your first baby and it's just learned to roll? At that stage it's really hard to envisage what life will be like with a toddler. A. 15-month-old maybe still learning to walk, I'm at the bumping the head on everything when they stand up under stuff stage, or fully confident on their feet, able to run, etc.

Many will be able to claim out of travel cots by that age. Some will be able to climb over stage, open doors etc. but they also have no sense of danger whatsoever.

15 months is probably peak difficult of taking a child on holiday. It's hard if you're in a place that set up for kids. A boat will be a hundred times harder. Is absolutely wouldn't be a holiday for you, and the level of restrictions you'd need to have on him just to keep him safe means it wouldn't be much fun for him either.

I happily took a newborn on holiday at 6 weeks (easy peasy), abroad at 10 months (more challenging but still fun), abroad at 2 (really really challenging). You couldn't pay me to take a toddler on a narrow boat holiday.

Yes, but on a boat you have stuff to do: operating locks, driving the boat, dealing with mooring ropes. Experienced people with a system can do a lot single handed but as novices you would need both people to give their boat full attention at times, and these can be the most dangerous situations where you would definitely need to supervise your child.

This, what sort of death trap could a grandparents house be compared to a narrow boat!

Don't worry, I'm thoroughly convinced that a canal boat is a terrible idea, although curious about the people who have actually done it!

We'd be going between Wolverhampton and Bolton. I know there are nice places in the middle of the UK, but very few of them are properly accessible without a car. We did it a lot before the baby and we've taken the baby on holiday along the GWR in the south west because that's easy. Even with taxis, outside large towns you have to call the day before and negotiate, plus take a car seat. British trains are a nightmare with just a suitcase so we'd want to minimise the number of connections.

I should be completely honest and say we're both very active introvert autistic food aeeseholes snobs, so a holiday park sounds like my idea of hell, unless there's a proper kitchen and a waitrose in walking distance, but I appreciate the helpful suggestion!

I find it difficult to understand how anything could be as logistically difficult as having one hand on a toddler for days at a time. My son was a climber so would have found every possible way to try to hurt himself on a boat. We didn’t even like taking the kids on a ferry trip when he was that age as he was so quick and so tricky - and had no common sense at all.

Not particularly cheap either so almost certainly easier and more affordable to just fly your parents to you.

Ah - you're foodies?

You know what you live on, on a canal boat holiday: chips! And there aren't very many Waitroses along canals. It's basically pubs and corner shops.

No, you are snobs.

A kitchen on a narrow boat is much less well equipped and further from Waitrose than a caravan kitchen.