...And its definitely not us. A family in Canada regularly spends weeks paddling in the wilderness with their young kids. They've been doing it since they were infants (like Arctic tundra). I'm impressed.

One of their tips for paddling with children is to paddle the boat with the child and the stern in front. They state that by putting the adult in the back/bow, the weight is distributed more evenly. The kid being up in the narrow stern, is able to reach the water and paddle easier. (The boat is intentionally backwards, the stern becomes the front, if that wasn't clear). Anyone ever done this?

Blazing Paddles

No, but it sounds logical.
Lots of suckers was the best advise we ever got. :•]

Yeah, we always bring a bag of tootsie pops. Works like a charm.

Very cool, and YES I have done it... because essentially I was paddling solo. So I turn the boat around as the bow seat is closer to center of boat. Kid weight in front was minimal, they easily fit in the "stern" seat, and it did help with trimming.

You then, paddling from bow seat have a bit more of a reach to the outside to paddle, but depending on boat it is easily done.

I am MORE likely to do this with an empty boat, than a tripping boat. Tripping boat I have more things to use to assist with trimming and it's more important that I be able to paddle my best. I wouldn't rule it out for tripping, just saying that I almost always did it with an empty boat and rarely with a tripping boat.

This will work in most boats. When Canyon was really small I set the boat up as a solo and I paddled it from the middle and put Canyon in the bow. This way I could handle rough water and rapids with Canyon in the front. Just like paddling solo. It does matter as to what boat you have as well. Some boats do not do well paddled backwards. I bought a Bell Yellowstone 2 specifically for paddling with my son when he was really young. Works great.