since lots of life/family issues touch upon cruising, obviously. I won't go into detail, but I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about family and work-related issues as they pertain to sailboat cruising. I (we) have been thinking forward about when or if we might feasibly take off again on a longer cruise...with a six year old at home, and work/financial and other issues to consider too, it's inevitable that these issues percolate to the surface of one's thoughts when planning a cruise. But I think we've got the child-rearing part figured out so I won't ask any questions here about that

So, all that to say, while this isn't a child-rearing board (thankfully! ), these type of issues inevitably come to the fore...life is part of sailing, and sailing is part of life (at least part of the time, if you're lucky).