To think you should hold your child's hand.

[Pistone]

When I'm out and about I constantly see mothers with very little children trailing behind. Mother often on mobile or chatting to friend walking beside her. The dangers to the child are horrendous, even crossing the road the child is free to do whatever. What is wrong with these women. Keep hold of your child FFS.

..and from the other side as a driver, you might know your child isn't going to dart into the road, but drivers don't know that and are on edge.

My children have great respect for the road. They make a fuss if I try to cross if there is a car on the road - even though I can judge the speed and distance and can see we have lots of time, they can't, so they try and hold me back.
So I do hold back, when I am with them I only ever cross if the road is completely clear, or at a proper crossing when traffic has stopped.
I always get one of them to push the button and say when it is safe to cross. I hope that's a good way to teach them about road safety. I would say they both have a very good sense of danger, and are hyper-aware of the traffic.

But I still hold the three year old's hand when we're walking or I jog along next to her, on the road side, if she's scooting or on her bike. Yes, she's very sensible. But she could still forget, or trip and fall in the road, or get spooked by a dog barking suddenly when walking past a gate, and bolt (that did happen once, but I was holding her hand, but she almost knocked me over trying to get away).

I remember being on reins when I was little and later had 'must hold hands' so firmly drummed into me that even now I often subconsciously reach for DH's hand to cross a road! He has a thing about having to walk on the outside of the pavement to 'protect' whoever he's with from the road, which was drummed into him as the eldest of four brothers who was in charge when they went out to play. Ironically, he was the one who charged across a 40mph road on a bend and was hit by a car when he was about 9! Although he was badly injured, he recovered ok, but has scars that are still visible now (he's 40). I am definitely a fan of reins and not just because I remember my big brothers swinging me round by them and holding hands for the same reason