My daughter and I like to take walks around the neighborhood, but she likes her stroller less and less. She turned two a couple of weeks ago and wants to walk like a big girl.
Our neighborhood has no sidewalks so you have to walk in the street. People zoom down the street pretty fast. It’s scary. I’ve been taking the stroller and pushing it with one hand while I hold her hand with the other–so she can ride if she gets tired (fat chance!) but mostly so the stroller provides a visual blockade between my daughter and the middle of the street.
Holding her hand requires me to bend over, and her to hold her hand above her head. Driving a stroller with one hand is clumsy. Screw it, I said, and just ordered a toddler leash.
I’ve never heard anyone say anything positive about them–they seem to be universally hated. I don’t understand why. A totally sensible product for a totally legitimate use. I bought one that is also a small backpack. It looks like a plush frog is riding on her back. Pretty cute.
Safety concerns drove your purchase and there aren’t many other viable options. Personally I think you’re just being a good momma.
Those things do make me laugh on the ski slopes though, parents trying to slow down a tot that would soon become a careening snowball left to their own devices.
We used leashes (to belts) with our twins. They were very large,* very physical and very capable of finding trouble way past their age level. If we were anywhere they could safely dart away and be chased, we left them loose. If we were on streets or in places where cars or a dangerous fall or whatever was within the few seconds of our response time, leashes.
I had three responses for those who commented:
Thanks, but they’re only 2, really fast and too big to carry all the time.
We let them run where it’s safe. This [place] isn’t.
I’d rather scar them a little than bury them.
Only used #3 once, for a really obnoxious woman who was shouting that we were psychologically destroying them.
From birth through 5 or 6, the pediatricians had to draw extra lines way over the top of the standard charts to plot height and weight. Sixteen pounds combined birth weight, 36 inches and 40 pounds at 2, IIRC. And they tag-teamed like you would not believe.
I love mine. It’s shaped like a puppy. People see it and laugh at how cute it is with her in it. The little one associates it with going out so she loves seeing me grab it.
On the one hand, I totally understand why people hate them, it looks like you’re treating your kid like an animal. OTOH, I always assume that people that hate them don’t have kids.
I’ve never used one (I have a kid), but I completely understand when I see them. There’s been plenty of times when I got sick of holding my kid’s hand or wanted to put her down and say “Fine, run around all you want, within a 3 foot moving radius around me”.
I used one of those on out little one. He had no problems with it and it kept him from darting out into traffic after stray leaves.
Never had a single negative comment from it. Though weary experience has taught me that there is no parenting decision someone, somewhere does not strongly disapprove of.
I laughed at them until I had my own kids. I soon realized that toddlers are fast and sneaky so maintaining a grip on them is paramount. Don’t worry about what it looks like.
No kids (my former step kids were 9 and 10 when I came along), but I LOVE them. Keeps kids from running into me and me from tripping over them.. A win-win as far as I’m concerned. I wish all parents would use them, and call total BS on them being psychologically damaging.
We used them. One of my favorite times in life is when people say things like “you know, I though toddler leashes were horrible before I had kids but then we had Owen, and I think I’d have gone nuts without it.”
Toddler leashes, as well as tv as babysitter, popcorn for dinner, and bribing your kids to spend the night somewhere else so you can have sex are something generally discussed when your kids are teenagers and the perfect parenting contest has become a joke. Younger parents still afraid of being judged by perfect parents.
I never used one but I understand. The one time I really wanted one was when we had a four hour layover in an airport and my 16 month old son decided that he wanted to run laps in the lounge and play with the pay phone.
The OP - walking in a neighborhood w/o sidewalks - sounds like a great situation for a kid leash. But I don’t understand the comments “wait until you have kids.” Never had any need for a leash with my 3 kids.
Where I see them most often is in malls or walking down sidewalks, where they seem to serve a good substitute for paying attention to your kid and teaching it to behave.
Apparently, my mother used one with me. I have no recollection of the leash, but I do have a general sense of feeling unhindered in my explorations because I wasn’t trapped by some giant grown-up’s sweaty, hard-to-reach hand, with said grown-up nagging me every few minutes to stay with the cart, or pay attention, or whatever. I think that while I don’t recall the actual use of the leash, I do recall the transition from what not using it (nagged! constrained!) to using it was like (sweet, sweet freedom). So what I’m saying is, I’m glad my mom used them, and I’m not especially scarred by their use.
I saw an Amish couple using one with their toddler, while in one of Chicago’s major train stations. As long as it’s not just used as a way to half-ignore the kid and trip the unwary, I’m all for what it takes to keep a kid safe.
