Today after I dropped J off and was on the way to my class, I saw a mom with one of those kid leashes that she had attached to her probably-if-I-had-to-guess four-year-old.
This wasn't a small child, or a crowded public place, or one woman with multiple kids. Mom and four-year-old. On a leash.
You know, the way you do with a disobedient dog.
I'm all for safety, and I'm all for attachment parenting.....we did a variety of co-sleeping and I used slings to carry both my kids around.
I'm also all for teaching children to listen to you, behave appropriately, and develop a sense of accountability and consequences for their own actions.
Leashes for kids undermine all of those things.....if they're tied to you a kid doesn't have any motivation to listen, they don't learn to behave but rather are physically restrained, and have no consequences for running away because, well, they can't do it.
I'm working toward our DOG being an off-leash entity even in public. I don't know why it would be a good idea to not treat my CHILD with at least the same autonomy and respect.
Let's free the leashed children!!!
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4 comments:
Agreed. I hate to take the dog analogy further, but here goes: we want to be sure that our dog is good not only at home (which she is) but at the park and with distractions (which she isn't really yet). So we find times that the park will be fairly empty and practice with her so that she's calmer (hopefully) when it's crazy. Letting kids loose can be scary, especially when it's a place or situation that you really need them to behave. So I guess the thing would be to practice in less-important settings. Either way, good point!
Yes!
Us too with Mollie...we try to practice with her when things are less stressful. She's not good in big crowds yet, or unfamiliar places.
Much like kids! If we took her everywhere we took the kids, she'd probably be fine.
So maybe people who leash their kids are setting themselves up for LESS good behavior, and in fewer situations?
I never thought about it. I wonder if it might be helpful in certain situations, like if you have a million kids and you go to Disneyland on a Saturday or something and you're afraid your kid might get snatched . . . But yeah, a leash for running errands or something? Weird.
I think that's my issue. If it's legitimately about safety then maybe....MAYBE. But when it's about control because you can't be bothered to teach them to behave......that's what bugs me.
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