How to Keep Your Child Under Control: A Mommy Blog

My mom likes to praise herself that she never put me or my brother on a leash. The only reason I think that she mentions it so much is because in all truthfulness, she wishes that she had put us on a leash at some point. But should we put children on leashes? I would have to say that it depends on the child and their ability to not freak out in social settings.



For instance, a couple of summers ago I went to a summer festival with my friend to watch the band Ok Go. Since we had gotten there late, we had to sit on the grassy hill where a lot of families with young children were sitting as well. During the set, I happened to look over to an adjacent hill and I noticed a small child freaking out and running around with a small cow backpack on.

I love how the child leash makers like to lessen the blow that your child is being demeaned by making the leashes look like cute little animals, but I digress.

I pointed the child out to my friend and we both laughed as we watched the child’s mother chase her. At first, we did not notice that there was a leash attached to the cow backpack because it was dragging on the ground. The child had miraculously escaped her mother’s clutches and gotten the leash out of her hands (you go kid!).

But when the mother finally got the leash back something interesting occurred. Because of the tug of war that they were playing, the child running forward to escape and the mother pulling backward, my friend and I witnessed the flight of a two year old into the air . . . At the time we laughed because of the ridiculousness of the situation, but then my friend quickly said “Ooo, that’s messed up.”

This child probably was on a leash because she needed to be. You can only escape but so many times before your freedom is compromised with a fuzzy cow leash. Unless you know how to act civil and not run away every five minutes, the leash is an option to keep a mother sane. Based on that theory, I wonder what the oldest recorded age of a child being on a leash is?

However, there are people highly opposed to child leashes. They run campaigns on other Mommy Blogs that might as well be named: “Kids are humans. Don’t treat them like animals.” Or “Would you treat your child like a dog?” Apparently, Child leashes are a heated debate among the Mommy blog sphere. Just check out this segment from the Mommy blog, The Nut House called “Free the Leash Kids” http://talesfromafewnuts.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-leash-kids.html

I kid you not I saw a kid on a leash crawling around like a wild animal.
You'd think we were at the zoo or something.
We also saw a leashed 5 year old girl running at the end of her tether pulling her mom along.I bet the mom was wishing she had some rollerblades.

Oh disgruntled mothers . . .