Scared to ride the ferry

By Heather

Tomorrow morning, I am chaperoning a class of four- and five-year olds on another field trip. This time, we’re taking the ferry from the East Bay to San Francisco to visit the aquarium.

Photo Courtesy of PBO31

Frankly, I bet the excitement of the ferry is probably enough fun and field trip for some of these kids but nobody asked me… so we’re taking awesome public transportation and then we’re doing even more cool stuff!

When I told my son, Holden, that we were taking the ferry to San Francisco, he expressed deep concern about drowning. I immediately pictured the building-like boat with high windowed walls and minimal opportunity to get close to the water and tried to empathize with his concerns.

We talked about his feelings and brainstormed possible solutions. Together – and I won’t tell you which ideas are which – we came up with this list:

he could hold my hand the whole time
we could wear leash-like wrist bands connecting ourselves
he could wear a life jacket
he could stay inside the whole time and hold the hand railing closely
he could sit in my lap
he could wear a magic harness or jet pack that allows him to fly safely above any danger

After creating this list, I reminded him that we’ve taken the ferry before and it was pretty fun. He insisted on seeing pictures (or better yet, video!) as proof.

While I don’t think he’s going to need a life jacket, it’s a great idea to be prepared and know where they are on the ferry before we push out to sea. I’m glad he’s safety-conscious; I just hope he can have fun without feeling panicky the whole time.

Maybe it’s a good idea that there are going to be fun activities on the other end of that boat ride, after all.