Would You Put Your Child on a Leash?

This post started off innocently enough – something about cute dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. But then my mind wandered (like minds do) and I ended up focusing on this:

It’s a kid. On a leash. Oh, and a dinosaur at the Royal Tyrell Museum. (Sorry for the poor resolution – I was in stealth mode.)

Now while I don’t have kids, and I probably never will, I couldn’t help but think back to the last time I saw a fellow primate on a leash:

That was in Koh Libong, Thailand. And it made me cringe.

To Leash or Not to Leash (your kids, your monkey…)

I’m having a hard time processing what’s going on in these two photos.

I know most of the folks that normally read this blog would look at the monkey photo and think — That’s wrong, the poor monkey, whoever did that should be shot.

But what about the first photo? What are your thoughts on that one?

The monkey’s probably thinking — I’m a monkey, I should be free.

The kid? Probably the same thing (except of course the I’m a monkey bit).

In the 8+ months I spent travelling through Asia, not once did I see a kid on a leash. (Well, not an Asian kid anyway). Kids were kids – like I was when I was their age. If I ran off from my parents, I learned pretty quickly not to do that again. And if my parents thought I might run off, well, they just didn’t take me there in the first place. No leash needed.

A Leash By Any Other Name

Parents don’t like to call it a leash of course. It’s a “child harness” or a “child safety harness” or — my personal favourite — the “Mommy’s Helper Kid Keeper Safety Harness”.

But I’ll defer definition to the pros. Merriam-Webster defines leash as:

A: a line for leading or restraining an animal

B: something that restrains : the state of being restrained <keeping spending on a tight leash>

There’s something just a little icky about the whole leash business. But what do I know? Like I said, I don’t have kids.

I just know that if I were that kid on a leash, I’d probably want to run away even more so. Same if I were that monkey.

You Take the Reigns

Now I’d like to hear from you. Just a quick informal poll to see if you believe putting your child on a leash is okay.





&lt;a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/6258611/”&gt;Do you believe it’s okay to put a child on a leash?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;span style=”font:9px;”&gt;(&lt;a href=”http://www.polldaddy.com”&gt;polls&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt; And I’d love to hear your comments.

Have you used a leash on your child?

Do you think it’s wrong to do so?

Do you use a leash on your child when you travel?

Can you not wait until my next post where I don’t talk about kids?

Let me know.

—Your obedient servant, Raymond