Friday, September 15, 2006

The Leash

I know other people that I read have posted about this topic before, but I just have to add my two cents. The other day Sydney and I were at Gymboree for a little fun and afterwards were headed to City Bites for a little lunch and along the way we encountered a mom and her two kids. The little girl was about 3 and the little boy was 5. For some ungodly reason the little boy was forced to wear a leash. Now, when I first saw them, my immediate response was horror. And then, trying to be a better person, thought to myself, "who knows, maybe the little guy is a holy terror and had done something horrible in the past which would warrant a human leash." So, we happened to be heading in the same direction and I just listened. The little girl was running around like a bat out of hell with the mother continuously trying to reign her back to them. The little boy kept asking his mom, "WHHHYYY DO I HAVE TO WEAR THIS" and "MOMMMMMY LET ME GET OFFFFFFF." The mom continued to say (loudly), "No, so-and-so this is a far as you can go." Hmm. Perplexing. We all reached City Bites together and at this point was feeling really sorry for the little guy. He was obviously embarrassed (rightly so) and really didn't seem to be that wild and crazy. So I took the opportunity to ask his mom a few questions while we were all standing in line. "how old is he?" "He's 5." "Must have made you run after him a few times (laughing)." "No, I just don't trust him." "Oh." Are you kidding me? That was not the response I was expecting. It was so vague and almost paranoid that I couldn't even think of a comeback for that one.
What do you guys think? Isn't that peculiar? I mean I can almost understand the damn thing if they were walking up May Avenue, but Northpark Mall?!? It's the least busy mall and really, what could he have done? Stolen jewels from B.C. Clark?

4 comments:

brooke said...

that is just weird. i would love to have one for oliver, because he is a runner-offer, but i would be to embarrassed, for myself and him!

Anonymous said...

I bought one of those for the little guy. He hates it and usually ends up walking himself. But... He is a runner and when he wants to wald around at the store it works. Sometimes. I think it is wierd for a 5 year old. Annaliese would die!!
Summer

ashli said...

WTF!!! can you imagine trying to put those on anna and grace! Omg!

Keithclan said...

I went to the fair last night and saw a lot of leashes. Someplace like that, or an amusement park, I can see using one, even on an older child. If I was by myself, and had 3 little ones, I could see having the 2 little ones in the stroller, and a WRIST leash on my 5 year old, with an explanation like " Let's both put this on our wrists, so we don't get seprated from each other" (even my oldest kids had a hard time not gettnig sidetracked, there is so much to see). HOWEVER, all the leashes I saw were harness leashes, and the parents would seriously jerk the kid back the way you would a dog. Most had only one child or WAY older kids.