When did parents start using leashes on their kids?

and a leash on a ski slope is not exactly the same thing.

http://www.angelfire.com/in2/dandee/

http://babies1st.com/by1354.html

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/kidsstuff/g120-loopleash.html

"lol"

besides, you can make that argument about other, less comical things and it wouldnt be pretty.

While I agree with stan about paranoia there are many things that could happen to a child in a busy store or public area: get lost; abduction; maybe taking things off store shelves and putting them in their mouths. . the list is endless.

I imagine a 'tether' would give the parent one less thing to worry about while in busy public places.

as long as you keep your child by your side, or under your vision that should be it. i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say most parents dont use these things and they get by, right? this just looks STUPID and is just that. kids are not dogs. also, even with this leash, if the parents look the other way the kid can still take things off shelves and put things in their mouth etc.

btw, how do you quote people like that? i

You use brackets like this: <i>quote</i> (see the FAQ link below for more)

thanks StanM!

I have yet to forgive her for buying it or myself for using it.

(Although in retrospect, it must have looked pretty funny).

short leash. like I'm having to use with my young dog. Don't know if the choke training collar would also apply.

I do think it looks silly but that's probably only b/c it's something rarely seen. If it were more common, I doubt it would look odd. I wouldn't criticze the parents b/c you don't know what the situation is with their child. There could have been a frightening incident in the past (like with Maria's brother) or the child could have emotional/behavorial disorders that make him very hard to control in public.

whatever. far more distressing to me is when I see a child hit/spanked in public.

OTM

I went into teaching anti-spanking and came out unsure about how I felt. But doing it in public (or in front of their classmates/friends) is unneccesarily humilating.

IT'S NEW TO ME!!!!!

I completely disagree.

Very. I'm about six foot tall, our little boy is about two foot. So I would need like four foot long arms to make it remotely comfortable. That said, you'd have to be some sort of glutton for punishment to take your toddler round the shopping mall anyhow. Take them to the woods instead and let them run around like nutters, says I.

In the 16th century. (images seem to be unavailable or protected, but the article is accessible)

i used to babysit a lot and it was the first time in my life i was ever really selfless -- they weren't even my kids but as long as they were nearby, they were in the front of my brain ALL THE TIME, always in my line of vision. i can see myself being a good parent, better than most parents probably, but boy oh boy, what kind of life would i have if i were in that hyper-vigilant role 24/7/365?

so i dunno. i'm on the fence.

Is it bad for a baby to see you masturbating?

I say this as a speaker of two other languages who has frequently picked up all kinds of bad/rude expressions without fully understanding what they mean. That's what happens when you spend the majority of your year abroad in the pub :)

hehe it's funny you say that, because whilst i was in hong kong i noticed that (and this is true in america too actually coming to think of it) there were so many drinking establishments that called themselves 'pubs', when they were clearly bars!!

*applauds*

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.