Whenever I hear about people giving it all up to live on a boat I remember Suzanne Heywood's account[1] of growing up like that.

It doesn't look like it was a very pleasant life for her or her brother. She describes it stealing her childhood. That's one reason not to do it.

It's something that looks glamorous from the outside but a bit grim when you really consider what's involved.

Worse things happen at sea, as they say.

(I still love their website and ideas, I just know I wouldn't want to inflict that lifestyle on my family).

1. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/mar/25/suzanne...

Fascinating read. Thank you for the link. It's wild to think about how different some people's lives are compared to our own. I couldn't imagine doing that to my child.

I've known people who grew up on sailboats who loved it in retrospect. At least the boys. I was generally struck by their competence & confidence.

Amazing article, thank you. I've bought her book and spent much of the last day reading it.

The comment said close and build slowly. Not live on a boat :)

I read the entire article (which is rare for me these days), and all I could think was: her parents were abusive, neglectful, narcissistic assholes. Imagine placing the wellbeing of your children so far down the list of priorities like that. Those people had no business having any children at all.

I read the article as well because I know some people that sailed around the world with their kids, and they turned out to be well-adjusted adults that enjoyed their time sailing.

The parents in the article were something else. I agree with you 100%. Abandoning minors in a foreign country and leaving them to deal with immigration, etc. is abusive.

kids, and understanding that if everyone decides to do this all at once, were (most of us) gonna die of hunger.

If everyone did my job, we're gonna die of hunger.

If everyone decides to do the same activity we die, that's not a really good argument.

I mean, it's not IT jobs that provide the most food, and the people providing food are even more locked up in debt. If you feel, do it, it's not for everyone anyway!

You know, the tanks are doing the most pew pew on the front line, but wars are won by logistic not by tanks on the front. Same analogy for agriculture and all the industries behind supporting that.

His partner I guess :-)