Leashes.

Yup, I'm one of THOSE mothers, the ones that chain their kids like dogs.

Well I kind of did with Rockchick. She was about 18 months, had been walking since 15 months and decided she was too big for the pram, she performed Houdini type escapes whenever I put her in it, and if she was not in it she would pull things off the shelves and run off so fast I had trouble watching her. So I bought a baby harness.

I was 20 years old, standing in the middle of the local mall, with my "perfect" baby that was so easy (first baby, remember?) in her leash for the first time. She was crawling along the ground with her head between her hands sobbing her little heart out, banging her head on the ground, and then turning around and smacking my legs as hard as she could. I stood stunned watching this performance, having no idea what to do about it, and feeling fairly mortified at the 50 odd people who had stopped to see what the commotion was, and I actually heard SOMEONE say "OMG what a terrible mother, I would NEVER chain my child up like it was a dog!"

Now that makes me angry. There are two reasons you chain up a dog, to protect others, and to protect the dog. To stop the dog running away, into traffic. To stop the dog getting into things. To anyone that says "don't chain your kids up like a dog" I say, don't you love your kids as much as your dog?

If any parent feels the need to "chain their kids like a dog" I say, good on you for doing whats right for you, and protecting your children in your own way. If you dont need/want a leash thats your right. But why belittle others?

Although I think its becoming more accepted again, slowly.

So anyway, on with the story.

I am getting sick of getting the pram out of the car, and putting two kids into it every time we go anywhere. CheekyLala can walk now, and BankyBoo is close (by close, I mean she can, but won't in public, and still reverts to her knees a lot). So I decided to buy Cheekylala a leash, and I found one of those ones that is a backpack with an attachment for a very reasonable price.

Being a bit more clued up this time round, I stuck it on her for the first time at home. We walked all round the house together for a minute or so, which she found very fun, and then I started stopping her going in certain directions, just a little bit. After about 5 minutes she seemed fairly used to it.

Then we went out. Our first outing with the new "system" (being me carrying Bankyboo and Cheekylala walking on her leash) went fairly well. Mostly. We went to a local foodcourt with a kiddy playground and met a few other mothers there, and that went fine. Then we went to the supermarket.

Now my local supermarket has 4 trolleys with two toddler seats. Thats right FOUR... feel sory for the fifth person with twins (or two children under 3) that walks in. Out of the 50 plus they must have in store at any given time... So being able to have one on the leash, and one in the trolley was great.

We managed our shopping with only a few minor tangles and one topple, and got to the checkout. CheekyLala saw the chocolate bars, and that was the end of her good mood. No chocolate equals baby on ground sobbing.

I'm pretty sure the guy in line behind us thought she was screaming because she was on the leash, as he was shaking his head at us and tutting under his breath. After a short glare in his direction and a fairly loud "NO DARLING, YOU CANT HAVE CHOCOLATE, ITS ALMOST LUNCHTIME!" and pointed look over shoulder at the judgy man, he seemed to decide not to look at me any more at least. I don't really blame him, I sincerely doubt he had kids, and hey I was a perfect parent until I had kids too.

No no, the one that ticked me off was the "perfect mother" in the next checkout. She had two perfect boys with her, sitting on one of the benches along the wall with not a hair out of place, nor a crease in their clothes, nor a sound from their mouths. And she looked at me like I was the worst mother she had ever seen. And I really wanted to walk over there, spill something on her perfect clothes (there was some yoghurt in my trolley, that would have done it) then ruffle her kids hair on the way back.

But I didn't. Just.

xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.