To the lady barging down the street with her 6 year old daughter hitched and muzzled into the industrial child harness – who, using all her might, courageously kept her grasp on the huge, padded handle / leash that is basically soldered into this contraption – what is wrong with you?
What is wrong with the world? Why is this little girl, who seems to be walking normally, wearing a grapnel device like she is a fucking raging komodo dragon?
If your answer is “because she is out of control”; why? Why can’t you control your 6 year old? It looked like the same strappy, tackle equipment they restrain and drag a lost polar bear out of the streets of some fishing town with. —Baffled Person
This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2010.
I wouldn’t be so quick to judge, OP. Maybe her child is mentally disabled and so using a harness is the only alternative to strapping her into a stroller/wheelchair device you often see used for disabled children of her age.
maybe the kid bites worse than a dog, and she is trying to protect you.either that, or she is just fucking nuts.
maybe they’re going rock climbing…
and they have their own gear!
Maybe the kid is into BDSM. Don’t judge.
Fuckin’ dogooders spouting off without having the facts.
Speaking of do-gooders, I read this somewhere:
A social work professor was getting sick of this one angry guy who would submit a series of “letters to the editor” to a newspaper saying negative things about social workers, whom he called “do-gooders”. So the professor wrote a letter to the editor: “There seem to be three kinds of people in the world: those who do good, those who do bad, and those who do nothing. I wonder which group of people this guy belongs to.” The letters from the angry guy stopped.
At least she wasn’t using a human version of this cat carrier: http://www.joejag.com/pics/ToughLove.jpg
Z, I work with mentally and physically disabled children and I’ve never seen/heard of that. Child leashes are ridiculous. My guess is that the child is running the show. I see this way too often. Parents need to learn how to be parents and not friends.
BT – it could also be that the parent/grandparent/guardian isn’t able to keep up with the child when they dart off into dangerous situations, ie. into traffic or water. I’d much rather see them take a precautionary measure vs. having to scrape said child off the pavement.
i’m pretty sure more will love that cat carrier vor…gross but inventive
The other day i saw an adult (most likely a kindergarten teacher) pulling 6 children all leashed like sled dogs. I laughed.
People have survived this long without leases.
How come no one here ever says “natural selection” when we have this type of bitch?
This is not a new invention:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Goldbug-2-in-1-M…
http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/tot-tether…
http://www.childharness.ca/
http://www.safety1st.com/usa/eng/Products/…
when i was a child, i regularly would dart away from my guardian when in the mall, on the street, wherever we were. i wasn’t out of control, but curious and active. and at the age of 3-7 or 8, i definitely wouldn’t have gone willingly in a stroller. my aunt had to resort to using a leash-like thing that strapped around my body, and i had enough room to roam without getting into trouble. i wouldn’t be so quick in putting down this mode of safety. i’m glad she used a ‘leash’ because, knowing my personality, as a child i would have run out in the street chasing a butterfly or something stupid like that. kids don’t stop and rationalize each random decision they make. they just go. i’ll probably use one on my kids if i ever have any.
Voice, that cat carrier was fucking A – wonder if they have dog and baby versions?
my brother had one when he was wee, it was more dog harness like…saved his tuckus many times. they do make me laugh… heehaw
LOL TTFN, tho I named the cat in the picture Bon 🙂
When you have a child under 4, who is high strung, tempermental, and hyperactive, you try controlling them in public when they want to run around. These harnesses are sometimes what saves the child from darting out and getting creamed.
It’d be so much easier to encase the kid in bubblewrap and roll her down the street.
Cooties or lice…..take your pick.
“This leash demeans us both.”
There is an alternative to the leash which can still keep a kid relatively safe. Daycares around the city all use it, and the kids are on board with it because the staff know how to treat the kids. They take a rope with loops and the kids are to hold onto them at all times. If you have any discipline at all, it can work with one kid without making either of you look lazy or a problem child.
Kid leashes are awful, pathetic that the parents who use them can’t control their kids enough to not have to use them.
I was at the mall not to long ago and I noticed an older women ( probably Grandma ) walking a little boy with one of those and when he wasn’t keeping up she was just yanking on the leash like he was a dog. It was pretty pathetic to say the least.
If your not able to get control of your own toddlers it doesn’t say very much for you as parent.
The only time I can see this being appropriate would be at a large theme park, or event where there are so many people that this would just be a way not to lose your child in the sea of madness. Otherwise, like PDG says, there are other options, my favorite being, if your kid can’t be taken outside without the discipline needed to not run into traffic, then they aren’t ready to leave the house.
LOVE the cat carrier – I have a crazy cat and this would work perfectly!
PDG what happens if a child decides not to hold onto the rope and darts into traffic?
Wait till PDG’s bus doesn’t have any room left on it and the daycare employees think tying the rope the back bumper is a good solution.
Didn’t it occur to anybody here that using a little harness on a toddler can give him or her more of a sense of freedom than hand holding, while at the same time keeping the parent in control- which might make the running of errands a nicer experience? My parents used one for my little sister; who was born with an independant, curious personality. She walked at 10 months and at 12, she went through a phase where she didn’t want to hold hands. The harness was perfect- it kept her close, yet allowed her to feel like she had a bit more control. Not like my parents were yanking on her leash like she was an out of control pitbull OR letting her pull them around like she was the boss. Ever hear of a happy medium, folks?? It works wonders!
And contrary to what so many or you people seem to think here, babies are born with personalities of their own; some are born mellow, others more of a challenge because they’re irritable, strong-willed…etc. It’s how a parent deals with it that matters!
Obviously the kid is a flight risk. You try keeping tabs on one of those kids all the time without a harness and then pass your judgment. There are far worse things parents can do to their children than use a harness to make sure they don’t run away. Why don’t you forget about this non-issue and start judging the real abusive parents?