Lee, Our approach it to try to avoid problems up front by limiting whom we invite aboard for anything other than a brief visit--say an hour or less. We rarely have non-boating kids aboard, and with boating kids there's never been a problem of consequence. In fact, most of our visitors have a fair amount of boating experience, and we rarely invite overnight guests who aren't close friends. Nonetheless, we have a simple "Welcome Aboard" handout for overnight guests. It's a done in Microsoft Word, one page (two side), and two copies go on the pillows in the guest stateroom. It answers most of the questions you ask in a positive, upbeat way. The handout can be easily modified for your boat or anyone else's--no pride of authorship here! Anyone who would like a copy can e-mail me at miltbaker at mindspring.com --Milt Baker, Nordhavn 47 Bluewter Lee wrote: Do any of you all have a "formal" or "informal" guest policy. Specifically do any of you "limit" how young children can be on board, and who is responsible for them, and when these youngsters must wear life vests? Do any of you have a informal limit as to how long a guest can stay on board? How does one politely tell guests that there are severe and rigid limitations as to what can go down the toilet, how much water one can use in the shower, turn the tap off when brushing teeth, and when to help and when not to help around the boat. Do any of you state that small children (under the age of, let's say 5 or 6) must be accompanied by their parents? (Grandparents, aunts, other relatives do not qualify.) And, do any of you all have a "guest who brings their pet with them" policy? Again, informal, formal, understand between consenting adults, wish I had that discussion, have not had that discussion but wish I had, etc etc etc.. [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/msword which had a name of Welcome Aboard Bluewater.doc]