Your child, the Swifter.Follow

Putting a kid on a leash is always a bad idea.

So please don't do it.

Its demeaning to both parent and child, but especially this lady.

Those Swifter commercials always make me sympathize with the Mop. Mary seems like a real *****.

I'm not a big believer in the kid leash, but there was an incident last fall that has caused me to soften my opinion on them.

Last October, I left my (then) 17-month-old with my friend for the afternoon to enjoy the only "mom's day off" I've had in 2 years. She has a toddler of her own and is a very conscientious parent, so I'm confident that what happened is not due to negligence. She took her son and mine to a park that runs alongside a river. Not a creek, a river. They were waving to a police boat as it cruised by, and after the boat passes, my friend turns her head and lets go of my son's hand for only a split second to pick up her purse that she had put on a large boulder beside them.

Next thing she knows, in the half second she wasn't looking at and holding onto him, she hears a splash and my kid has gone head-first into the river with only his feet sticking out. She has to wade in and pull him out by his feet. He splutters for a moment and looks startled, then grins and attempts (repeatedly) to jump out of her arms back into the water. It's October in the Pacific NW and fairly cool, and the river itself is fed almost exclusively by melted-snow run-off from the Cascade mountains, so it's extremely cold, and she's trying to strip off his wet clothes and wrap him in her jacket, and he's still trying to jump back in the water the whole time, giggling like it's a great game.

So, yeah, not a big believer in leashes, but there was a long while where I was giving some consideration to getting one and keeping it in the car, just in case we happened to find ourselves near a large body of water. Luckily, my kid now seems to have outgrown his complete lack of fear of the water and has a decent amount of respect for it (good thing, too, since he's nearly the size of a five year old and I am not sure I could get a harness that would fit him--having enough trouble finding things like water wings and swim vests in his size) and tends to be a bit more cautious when approaching it.

Edit: however, dragging him through a store? Yeah, no. Anyone who would do that deserves to be charged with child abuse.

Edited, Aug 3rd 2009 6:08pm by Ambrya

Ergo. There is no substitute. Best money I ever spent, and when we have another kid, it will get an extensive workout, I am certain.

(Unfortunately I never could nurse in it, just about the only time I've ever regretted the size of my rack.)

Anyone who runs full speed after a child while carrying a child in one of those should be charged with child abuse!

Oh, hell no, the kid would probably enjoy it. Tristan found it tremendously fun when I would wear him in the Ergo and swing on the swingset.

The kid was being dragged by the neck. That's not physically harmless. That wasn't a body leash or whatever they are called, that was wrapped around his neck.

I was going to attempt to reply to this explaining why the two aren't even in the same universe with one another, but then realized that if you're so out of touch with the realities of both situations to find them even remotely comparable, you're not worth the effort. So, whatever, dude.

1) The Ergo has an infant insert for small babies who need neck support. If the baby is old enough to hold up his own head, this isn't an issue anyway.

2) The Ergo has a hood that can be put up around the baby's head to provide support, especially when they are sleeping and their head is lolling around.

3) The Ergo even is built so that it supports the child under their butt, instead of hanging them by their crotch like more well-known carriers such as the Baby Bjorn and Snugli, which means that even issues like hip stress from dangling legs aren't a problem.

4) Running with a kid in the Ergo is just another variation of using the Ergo as intended, and is therefore safe--people go hiking with them, as long as you're upright and the baby is in the prescribed position within the carrier, the pace at which you're moving is incidental. At most, the kid might be a little jounced and unhappy at the bouncing, but the potential for actual harm is negligible and mostly theoretical.

You're honestly honestly attempting to compare that to a situation fraught with extremely real and present potential for harm? Srsly?



Yes, it does. There could be any manner of harmful stuff on the floor--not just dirt, but broken glass or plastic pieces or wooden slivers upon which a child could be cut, he could be hit on a wall or display case being dragged around a corner, he could be stepped on or tripped over. Hell, the friction of being dragged along the carpet, linoleum or cement alone could cause serious burns.

On top of that, even if the leash has a chest harness, it's designed for the child's weight to rest on the harness in front if you're pulling from behind to keep the kid from dashing out into traffic. If the harness is used as intended, a sudden jerk of the leash might result in, at worst, the kid getting a little bit of the wind knocked out of him.

However, that woman was NOT using it as intended...it's not designed to be pulled up under a kid's armpits like that. There are nerves bundles that run through the axillary area that could be damaged by a strap cutting into them like that for even a short period of time. With that sort of dragging, the front part of the harness could (and according to the article, which mentions marks on the child's neck, probably did) ride up and get caught up under the child's neck, posing a very real strangulation hazard.

Now if you want to continue idiotically attempting to equate the two, go right ahead, but it's a really fucking STUPID comparison to attempt to draw. Frankly, merely calling the woman dragging her kid "harmless" is moronic. The rest of your lame-brained theory is just icing on the cake.




That, by you, is harmless?




Yes, harm WAS being done--the child had marks on his neck. Moreover, the POTENTIAL for great harm was tremendous and extremely real and present, whereas your hypothetical assumptions about running with a baby in the Ergo are merely theory.

Is seeing a woman dragging her kid along the floor shocking? Sure. But the REASON it's shocking is because she was doing something that was truly dangerous, and the shock is due to the fact that she was so devoid of common sense that she didn't realize how badly she really could have hurt her child doing that. That he wasn't injured worse than he was was simply a matter of luck.

If your kid is misbehaving, you pick him up and carry him out of the store, you don't drag him along the floor.

Dude, seriously. If you're going to play devil's advocate, at least pick a case that doesn't make you look like an idiot.

Edited, Aug 3rd 2009 8:23pm by Ambrya

Not my fault the site linked the article blurb under a small link labeled "video" when the video was already visible from the site.

As far as the video had shown, there was nothing going on other than dragging. (Which is why I said "Where does it say that")

Here i was thinking the child was getting a fun ride along the well polished floor. You should see me slide down the bowsprit on the ship when it has recently been varnished! Wheee.

What we have here is a failure to communicate!

It's personality. Thank your wife for her awesome genes . As I said, everything I taught Xavier I'm teaching Ashe and in the same way.I never had an issue with Zavi. He was never one to bolt. Ashe is a whole new ballgame. And he gets it too, that he's going to be in trouble if he leaves our side. He just doesn't care.

Putting a kid on a leash is alright if your kid is a wanderer, but dragging a kid across the floor is unacceptable in my opinion. Besides the neck marks the article reported, I wonder if they took into consideration the rug burns the kid probably has now because of that.

I remember, during my first year in college, watching a passed out friend get dragged on the floor from the hall bathroom back to his room. It was probably at the most 10-20 feet, a lot less dragging on what was on that video. That friend ended up with terrible rug burns all over his chest which lasted for at least the rest of the semester (rug burn, puss, scabbing).

Now as a toddler, my folks put me on a leash, but that was to make sure I didn't wander too far. Since we lived in London at the time, and I liked to wander around (also a big fan of the Underground), they told me a leash was the only way to keep me in a 5 foot radius while keeping from throwing a fit because I wanted to move around. If I was too troublesome, it was just a pick me up and carry me (at least that was what I was told :D)


Here is the correct example of using a child leash (sorry I could only find the video on here)
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=34905070