When did parents start using leashes on their kids?

Oh I'm sure he did something worthy of caging. David's just happy to be off the leash.

Had my mother not leashed me on our vacations, I'd likely still be stuck in the gears of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, presumed long-since abducted by some pervert with balloons, or perhaps be scrambling around the scaffolding of space mountain, hidden by darkness, a sickly forsaken Gollum-like creature. I wasn't a bad kid, but I was utterly oblivious. I wouldn't ditch my parents purposefully, I'd just wander off, usually looking in any direction but the one in which I was headed (so I've been told). In my job now I see lots of families, and a similar lack of awareness from the kids. They're not being bold or intentionally difficult -- usually they'll relax for a while when asked -- but they don't yet have the self-discipline to maintain this themselves for very long. They just start running around again. They also don't understand what the risks they're taking are. In that sense keeping them close = keeping them safe, in exactly the same way that setting a curfew, and keeping them inside (surely a more drastic, though more accepted, limitation) is a sensible idea. Someday I hope to tie a child to a piece of leather.

It probably is marginally less safe than holding hands, but if the adult is spending half the time shaking the feeling back into their arm then holding hands isn't really comparable.

http://au.geocities.com/safety4baby/images/ToddlerReins.jpg

but just like a dog-leash.

This was at the football on a busy staircase where 34 year old me and 35 year old Onimo once got separated by the crowd, so, yeah, still necessary for hanging onto toddlers you don't want disappearing.

I used to think leashes were absurd, but when I read shit like this it makes me think otherwise.

-- Andrew (n...), June 28th, 2006 3:27 AM. (enneff) (link)

(Except, what are the chances? Do they really justify being paranoid 24/7?)

"stop being ridiculous" eh? ok then ;-)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/372087383_2b726fa5b2.jpg

(I just came across this on random, and wanted to mention about the kid I saw on a leash in a necessary situation. Anyone wanting to reiterate themselves, feel free. I stand by everything I said upthread)

The humiliation aspect: I remember my mum looking after a friend's kid, aged about 5 or 6, and threatening him that if he didn't behave when walking home from the village, she would put him on the reins (which she'd kept from when I was small). She only had to take them with her and show him, for him to immediately start behaving himself.

Sheesh, Ailsa, you always take people seriously,don't you? He said:"(Except, what are the chances? Do they really justify being paranoid 24/7?)" He wasn't talking about leashing the kid all the time. Or maybe I didn't understand correctly...

Anyway, use whatever you want if it means keeping your kid safe. A leash will hardly hurt a kid (emotionally nor physically). People should give it a fucking rest, what with pushing their opinoins on others thinking that's the way it should be. Parenting is a hard job, an accident can quickly happen. If a leash can prevent that, why not use it?

We have one of these! Flickr friends will know how adorable Ava looks in it.