When did parents start using leashes on their kids?

i think they are apalling and a tool for lazy parenting.

onimo's reply totally totally otm. actually, onimo otm on whole thread.

i am not saying that the RARE circumstance does not exist that would warrant such a contraption. perhaps that is true for onimo. it just seems that many who enlist the device do so because they would rather tie the child to their person than be bothered to pay enough attention to keep hold of them. they seem to be overused. like television/kid's videos, i guess.

i really don't think it's necessarily to do w how much attention you pay your kid. i know i was paid an absolutely mental amount of attention when i were a babby, but to keep me safe while making sure i didn't, you know, DIE, i was kept on a lead when out in public, for ages. and we lived in a tiny village. um, obv they can be misused. but i would guess anyone having a prob wrt the misuse of leads for kids would have a few other bigger probs to sort out first.

Wot is the big deal here? This idea that leashes is "degrading" is weird. I mean, they're degrading if you put them on an Iraqi prisoner, sure, but their primary function is not to degrade. Are people trying to humiliate their dogs? No, they're trying to keep some control over an animal with a tendency to wander, while still allowing them some freedom of movement. Same deal with a kid. Giving them a few feet of walking space seems a hell of a lot less oppressive than strapping them tight into a stroller. Our kid isn't quite to walking yet and we haven't thought about whether to ever use a kid-leash, but I wouldn't rule it out. And holding the end of a leash is no lazier than holding a hand, as long as you're keeping a close eye on things.

YES YES YES.

See, apart from Emily beating down on people she doesn't know, with kids she doesn't know, about their parenting abilities based on her smug self-imposed moral superiority, THIS is the worst thing on this thread.

Sorry if I'm missing something, Nathalie, but are you saying that if a kid pushes you to breaking point then it's justifiable to lash out at them? I'm not anti-smacking at all (OH NOES, BAD POTENTIAL PARENT ALERT!! What with agreement with the use of reins and everything, perhaps I should be sterilised now for the good of humankind), but physical punishment (not violence) should be delivered in a measured and controlled way, with reasons for your actions being given to the kid so that they realise WHY they are being punished. This is what my dad did to me, he hated doing it, but it did me good in the long run and I bear no mental scarring from it. Not by lashing out when the little brats get too much for you to deal with rationally.

I may have misinterpreted this (I know English isn't your first language, so it may have looked worse than you intended), but I thought it needed saying.

Hey, it's all a matter of opinion. Am I wrong or right? Fuck knows. See, I could see one child benefiting from a slap; but personally I don't wanna risk it. :-)

Tethers, leashes, and leads are to be used only for animals and balloons.

We walked through the shopping mall down her way (very crowded, parents and kids everywhere) and I counted at least six kids wearing reins. How uncomforatable and awkward must it be for a parent to walk stooped holding a childs hand? That or a pushchair would be the only alternative to reins because it would be IMPOSSIBLE to stop your child getting lost in such an environment otherwise.

Old people don't tend to run so fast do they?

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?)