Extreme Parenting: To Leash or Not to Leash? (Video at link)

[laundry_queen]

19. I wish I wouldn't have been such a chicken shit with my first

I was young when I had her, (always worried about dirty looks) and she was awful for running away. She took off every chance she got. Once she slipped her hand out of mine and ran out in front of a moving car in the parking lot...thankfully the car came to a squealing stop, but I thought I would die of a heart attack. I scooped her up and cried and cried. It was even worse when I was pregnant with my second. I couldn't leave the house without my husband, because I couldn't run fast enough to catch my 2 year old.

One woman I met said to me, "Oh, you have a runner." "um, wha? huh? How did you know that, you just met me?" "You are holding her wrist, not her hand. My first one was like that too. They can slip away if you hold their hand, but if you hold their wrist you have a better grip." LOL she knew. I either broke my back hanging on to her wrist with the death grip, or I strapped a screaming child into a stroller. I was too afraid to try a harness, because many people (ahem, my own mother) thought it was a sign of bad parenting. I know better now...My other children followed me around like little ducklings and I never had to worry about them taking off. Ever. I was prepared to use a harness with them but never had to. Now I know my life would've been so much easier with my first had she had her own harness.