Keeping 'em on a leash
I told you the holidays were fodder for excellent blog material. Well, here's the first memorable story.
While sitting around the kitchen table at my grandmother's house on Christmas evening, I entered a memorable discussion about baby gadgets. Now I am all for cool, innovative gadgets for entertaining and keep track of children. I have thrown plenty of money at the baby products industry. But there's one item that seems to have escaped me...
the child leash.
I thought - for a brief second - about doing a search on the internet. But googling "child leash" will probably take me to places I do not want to go.
If you have frequented an indoor mall in the last fifteen years, you have probably seen what I am talking about. The child leash is essentially a harness put around the shoulders and waist of a small child attached to a long leash. The leash is affixed to the mother's wrist. Therefore, the child can have the sense of walking independently, yet when said child is more than ten feet away from mother, he has "reached the end of his leash" and is yanked back to his mother. You've seen a dog walking on a leash, right? It's the same concept.
Hmmm...I wonder why I don't recall seeing the product at Target or Babies R Us lately?
One of my aunts - who shall remain nameless - was a proud user of the child leash. She didn't leave home without it. Her own children even testified they are physically and emotionally unharmed from being put into the child leash.
The rest of my family, however, found the child leash concept hilarious. Knee slapping funny. Belly laughing material.
And where does my opinion rest?
I have sided with the babysitter. Yes, the next time I want to venture out to a shopping mall I will be hiring a babysitter. Even on a leash, shopping with my children is not fun. Not fun at all.
While sitting around the kitchen table at my grandmother's house on Christmas evening, I entered a memorable discussion about baby gadgets. Now I am all for cool, innovative gadgets for entertaining and keep track of children. I have thrown plenty of money at the baby products industry. But there's one item that seems to have escaped me...
the child leash.
I thought - for a brief second - about doing a search on the internet. But googling "child leash" will probably take me to places I do not want to go.
If you have frequented an indoor mall in the last fifteen years, you have probably seen what I am talking about. The child leash is essentially a harness put around the shoulders and waist of a small child attached to a long leash. The leash is affixed to the mother's wrist. Therefore, the child can have the sense of walking independently, yet when said child is more than ten feet away from mother, he has "reached the end of his leash" and is yanked back to his mother. You've seen a dog walking on a leash, right? It's the same concept.
Hmmm...I wonder why I don't recall seeing the product at Target or Babies R Us lately?
One of my aunts - who shall remain nameless - was a proud user of the child leash. She didn't leave home without it. Her own children even testified they are physically and emotionally unharmed from being put into the child leash.
The rest of my family, however, found the child leash concept hilarious. Knee slapping funny. Belly laughing material.
And where does my opinion rest?
I have sided with the babysitter. Yes, the next time I want to venture out to a shopping mall I will be hiring a babysitter. Even on a leash, shopping with my children is not fun. Not fun at all.
Comments