Welcome to Part 2 of Danielle & Jason’s Guide to Beach Etiquette!
Since Jason and I are in the middle of our summer vacation on Cape Cod and are spending as much time as possible on the beach we thought we’d share some of our favorite beach etiquette tips (i.e. common sense for most people) to help make everyone’s beach experience as enjoyable as possible!
In case you missed Part 1, you can read it HERE!
So last time we talked about smoking and asked that if you MUST smoke on the beach (I guess some people just feel like they’re sitting in a giant ash tray in the sand??!) then PLEASE take a moment to analyze the current wind patterns and appropriately aim your smoke AWAY from your fellow beach goers.
So, along those same lines we should address “the sandy towel shake off”.
I get that you want to take as little sand home with you as possible, but if I wanted to experience a sandstorm I’d be on vacation in the Sahara, not Cape Cod, so before you pick up your towel and begin to whip it around, take a minute to make sure you’re not about to give your neighbor an unexpected mouthful of sand.
Speaking of unwelcome flying objects, I’m all for a little beach fun and have been known to participate in a game of baggo or paddleball myself, but playing ball on a busy beach is all fun and games until someone takes a frisbee to the head (and of course my head seems to be a frisbee magnet). Do everyone a favor and save the games for a less crowded area or time.
And speaking of flying things, let’s talk seagulls.
When to comes down to it the beach belongs to the seagulls…
…and the crabs and the fish and all the other ocean creatures. It’s their home and we’re lucky enough to be visiting.
And while it’s always nice to bring your hosts a gift, please refrain from attempting to lure the seagulls over to your blanket to share your bag of chips. Not only do I not really want to get caught up in a flock of seagulls (see what I did there…hee hee), but chances are once they finish eating on your blanket they’re going to come over and poop on mine.
It is also not nice to throw things at your hosts. I will never understand why kids are fascinated with throwing rocks /sand /shells at the seagulls. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t allow your kids to do this, it just makes me FURIOUS!
And if I notice your child doing this and you don’t we have a totally different issue.
While I’m flattered that you trust me to watch your kids (you know, seeing as we’ve never actually met before) and I’m thrilled that you’re enjoying you’re book/ beer/ phone call (I get it, you need a vacation too), I wasn’t really planning on babysitting today. (And on that note, neither was the lifeguard.)
And if you do notice your kid throwing sand at seagulls/ hitting me in the head with their wiffle ball bat, feel free to put the book/ beer/ phone down and come over to say something to them rather than screaming down the beach. As a general rule if you’re sitting more than 3 umbrella’s down from me I shouldn’t know all your kids names by the end of the day (shout out to little Caden!)
And lastly, one of the things that was mentioned most when I asked for everyone’s biggest beach pet peeve…THIS GUY!
Ok, maybe not EXACTLY this guy, but you get the point. Please don’t pollute the quiet (other than dad yelling at Caden), serene (other than getting pooped on by the potato chip fueled seagulls) beach atmosphere with your loud music. I prefer to get hit in the head with the rogue frisbee while listing to the waves hitting the beach.
Happy Beach Going!
-Danielle & Jason
**Note: no seagulls or small children were harmed while researching this post!**
Live, Run, Grow 
LOL I know I had mentioned the parent/kid thing to you before, but OMG what is wrong with some of these parents?!?! Why did you have the kid if you’re not going to watch/pay attention to them?!?! Sorry…that’s a pet peeve of mine that sadly isn’t exclusive to the beach (can’t WDW be for adults only?)
Ugh, the Disney version of throwing things at seagulls (chasing the ducks!) makes me just as insane!
Oh, how I’ve been waiting for this! (rubbing hands together with evil look in her eyes)…..I’m almost convinced that parents conveniently forget they HAVE little monsters the minute they walk out the door AND what may be a perfect angel at home, is taken over by Satan the minute they walk out said door. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve screamed at those life-sucking monsters as they’ve chased or thrown things at the ducks in our back yard. MY FRIGGIN’ BACK YARD! As I have pretty much NO tolerance for said little people to begin with (just in case you didn’t get that), having to deal with these monsters at what I consider my second church – about 50 feet under the waves being my first – is not on my list of fun things to do. Perhaps they should add mandatory parent-child tethering on the list of beach rules. Hmmmmm……..
Haha, well I’m glad I could entertain you! And my husband and I had a long conversation about kid leashes while at the beach discussing this…I opted to leave it out since I believe they are somewhat controversial (although I don’t understand why ; )
Absolutely fantastic blog…. and how true it is! Should be mandatory viewing for all “parent beach goers”! dad
Hmmm….there’s an idea The Parents Guide to Beach Going with Small Children…you may have something there…
ah that beach looks beautiful… you know, minus the seagull poop, screaming abusive children, and projectiles coming at your head.
It is gorgeous and to be honest since it’s a private beach none of these things are really THAT bad here but I can only image how much worse they are at public beaches!
LMAO! I’m loving these posts. Completely and 100 percent agree on all of these!
Glad you’re enjoying them, they’ve been fun to write! I’m trying to come up with a few more things for a Part III so if you have any more pet peeves send them my way : )
lol this is awesome. You should do more PSAs! I love the seagull picture! Beautiful and funny “mine! mine! mine!”
Hmmm…I like the idea of more PSA’s! Any topic’s you’d like to see covered? Maybe running or race days??
lol yes! def. race days! That would be great for us newbies : D
Agree with all of them too. So many of these can be applied to Disney as well. No wonder they have adult-only pool areas on their cruises.
Oh how I loved the adult only areas on the cruise! : )
Poor little, Caden. He’s probably sick of hearing his name too. Thanks for the humor break!
Hahaha, oh man, your comment totally made me laugh out loud!
Poor Caden : (
Haha!! Oh my gosh this was hilarious and a much needed laugh.
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