Baby reigns

[Mammadibambini]

I’m a single mum and my DD is very strong willed. She’s getting to grips with walking but she already is pulling her hand away and my reaction to this is to ask her her to hold my hand and if she refuses I carry her. (We don’t have a pram with us when out walking. Yes I know I could just wheel the pram around too but what a faff.) I don’t want to carry her. She’s picking up speed with her walking but is also still a bit unsteady especially if the surface isn’t perfectly flat.

would I be unreasonable to use reigns?
I’m a bit worried about restricting her movements but then also want to keep her safe. Any alternatives to using reigns?

I don’t understood anti reign comments. The traditional type are ideal if unsteady as you can stop them falling. Backpack type are a safety measure. Mine had both. It’s better than them having to walk with arm up and risk of dislocating if they trip and you pull them back. Nice for them to walk rather than be in buggy.
I’d fall into category of middle aged woman smiling at child with reigns.

Use the reigns....
At the end of the day safety trumps everything else. I did with my toddler as I knew he couldn't betrusted not to bolt into the road

So true. Whoever started saying they are like dog leashes and putting parents off has a lot to answer for. My DD loved her ladybird backpack ones 🥰

@BettyBooper my grandma actually used a dog reign around my wrist when I was a preschooler, because it kept me safe. She didn't care in the 90s that it was a dog lead she did whatever she could to keep me safe. I was a 4 year old runner. She took me everywhere but couldn't run after me if I ran away. So whatever to keep the kid safe !

Reins! Reins!

Reigns = 'King Charles reigns...'

It's fine to use reins where they are needed to keep the child safe. My reins-wearing children, who wore them or the wrist straps for bigger children, in some situations, until they were at least 5, are now all independent-minded adults with no ill-effects.

See also playpens. The big wooden sort.

There existed a poster on here, I think her username was MrsPresley, whose child died. She advocated reins. I used reins. And I believe that she has probably saved lives on here talking about the terrible tragedy in her life. It gave those of us who wavered a feeling we were doing the right thing.

Use reins (spelled that way) and keep your baby safe.

TBF toddlers are basically mini dictators who like to think they reign their households.

Yes use reins. If anyone comments on them ignore them, they are for your child’s safety. I liked the backpack ones.

It's spelt reins and I don't even know why you're agonising over this. Use them of course! They are great.

Walk around for ten minutes with one arm held over your head by someone taller than you... Ow!

Still think reins are an awful idea?

I think forcing little kids to walk at a pace thats not entirely their own with one arm up in the air putting their already unbalanced bodies off balance even further is by far the worse 'crime' of the two options.

We used reins and I find all the dogs lead type comments really bizarre. They're strapped into a buggy, and a car seat, but somehow reins are an issue?

When DS1 was learning to walk reins just seemed sensible - he needed both his hands out to help him balance and the reins certainly saved him from a fall flat on his face a few times. We also lived right on a main road with buses flying down it.

The first time I saw parents using baby reigns I was appalled.
Then my sister explained that since we were all on a dock over a roaring river, it was to prevent the toddler from running into the water. That made perfect sense.
It was shocking though because I’d never seen it before - and also, I was young and naïve.
If it’ll save your child from harm, why wouldn’t you use reigns or anything else?

REINS!!

I didn't need them with mine as luckily they both walked nicely and were/are happy to hold hands but if I thought they needed them I absolutely would have used them.

Another vote for the backpack type.

I genuinely initially thought that the thread title meant that the child was contolling due to the use of reigns

Another vote for reins 👍🏻 we used these ones when DS was at the “just walking” stage and they were really easy to put on and off. We’d put them on while we walked along the streets to get to the park or glen or wherever then take them off when we got there to allow him to have a bit more “freedom” where I knew he couldn’t suddenly run into traffic 😅

We didn’t end up need them for a huge length of time as DS was a really good hand holder (and still is at 3 👏🏼) but they definitely put my mind at rest when he was a bit more impulsive 😬

Anyone that criticises you for keeping your child safe is a twat 🙃

ToddlePak Reins

Dd used to love her reins so much she'd wear them around the house :)

I use backpack reigns for my little boy. He’s a runner too. He’s nearly 3 now so we mostly only use them when we’re on car parks now as I have a 6
month old too so I’m usually juggling the pram as well. He has got much better over the last few months so hopefully we’ll be able To stop soon.

My thoughts were always that I’d rather have a safe child and potentially be judged for using them than not use them for fear of being judged and he get hit by a car or something.

I was the insufferable 3rd child and the only 1 out of 5 children that my mother had to use reins on. Absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to keep your child safe 🌸

I didn’t think they were very safe. I tried my Ds with those back pack type rains at about 14 months and he could just open the clip within seconds? So he would just open clip and leg it, and I would have been left holding a strap minus child.
This was only tried in John Lewis, and the assistant was like ‘ oh, that’s not very safe is it’… 2 mins after she had trie for sell the item to me.
So maybe they are only good if your child isn’t Houdini, doesn’t attempt to run or open things

Reins are great, I find the “leads are for dogs” comments odd, have these people ever met toddlers? They run off, put things in their mouths, lick innapropriate things, poo wherever they like, they are dogs.

I have reins but don’t use them. They’re a faff if walking somewhere safe (like the park) and the rule we have is “walk on the pavements and hold hands to cross the roads”. But I have smaller child in a pushchair too so I can’t follow my son for every leaf / stick / pine cone he’s found: I’d be like Stretch Armstrong. I might use them if I went to a big city as we live in a market town. The harness ones are better than the backpacks imo because the rein is in a better position and they won’t fall over if they go too far (bitter experience with the backpacks).

We used reins until she was about 2.

By then she properly understood “if you don’t hold my hand when I need you to we will have to use reins”, and she didn’t like being restricted, so always held my hand then when I asked and so the reins became obsolete.

If she had been a bolter we obviously would have used reins as long as necessary but thankfully that’s never been the case.

The other good thing you can do is if they fall and you're quick enough, you can Mission Impossible them. No fall, cool Tom Cruise baby.