To ask "Whatever happened to reins?"

[Lucia39]

I regularly see very young children roaming, apparently, unattended around large supermarkets and stores, or wandering down busy streets, often several yards behind their parents/carers.

So what has happened to leading reins and harnesses? I remember that just after the Bulger case there was a sudden increase in sales but in recent years they appear to almost non-existent.

Harnesses are also an excellent means of containing young children in the appropriately designed supermarket trolleys, rather than the current trend of letting them sit in large trolleys.

So why don't more parents seem to use them? Or are they now, in our PC obsessed world, viewed as a Human Rights abuse of youngsters?

Ninkynork

Backpack with a strap here. Tried reins alone but dd was having none of it. She likes the backpack. As she is a bolter I'm not prepared to take any chances, and try explaining road safety to a 16 month old...

I do feel a bit like I'm leading a dog but rather that than be waiting in A&E.

I have to use them for my 2yr old in the buggy because no matter how tight you strap her in she escapes from the harness. Not funny when your crossing a road and she stands up in the buggy. She would also run off into the road if she was walking I never used them for my other 3. Some children just need them. I would rather have the safety of knowing she was safe than be worried about what others think. Even if it is chavvy

LeonieSoSleepy - LOL at threatening to put them on again at 5.5.

Around that age we used to do that to DS1 when he was very naughty. Once we threatened to make him walk to school with them on in front of his class mates as a punishment for walking across a road on his own without looking.

It worked. He never did it again.

I really want to use reins but DD just acts like a freaky marionette on them. We had a backpack she loved but it's disappeared.

Mind you, I seem to spend more time shouting at my DD's to hurry up as they inspect another cat/snail/flower, rather than running after them, on the way to nursery.

They are great when they are with me - my only difficulty is when they are with other children on the way to/from nursery.

Then the pack mentality can really take over with them 'racing' each other to the next road.

At those times DD2 is strapped into the push chair as I know she is bloody minded enough to run into a road if it meant she would be 'first.'

I would also say that I only tend to let them walk ahead of me on recognised routes - ie: to nursery as they have learned where to stop etc.

We are lucky in that there are no driveways where we live (it is all tenements) so I don't have to worry about cars backing out.

On busy city streets DD2 holds my hand. DD1 is pretty streetwise now.

What on earth is "chavvy" about knowing where a young child is and that it's safe?

In response to the comment from missismac:

Quote ["they're supposed to fall over, they're made small & soft for that reason - it's how they learn to balance themselves"] End quote

I disgree completely. I don't think allowing a small child to fall flat on their face on a hard pavement is something that should be encouraged! Apart from the shock and the possibility that they may actually hurt themselves there is also, given the disgusting habits of so many people today, the distinct possibility that the child may end up landing in something decidedly unpleasant [broken glass, left-over food, spittle or even dog crap]!

I also don't agree with children running around department stores or supermarkets completely unsupervised!

My old reins were mint green leather with a silver koala embossed on the front. I hated them, as we went on holiday by train every year and as my mum had my two brothers to look out for as wel I had to wear them til I was about 5
BUT I found the very same reins in a charity shop and bought them for ds. He has just taken his very tentative first steps, but there is no way he is oing to be as compliant and lazy as dd. He is a little firerocket, and once he can walk I know he'll be even more difficult to control. So when I had only dd, I did judge people who 'needed' reains as not being able to control their dc. Now I have ds, I know some children are just made that way

I have limited mobility due to scoliosis. My DS, who is sometimes good, sometimes bad, depending on his mood, wears them if im out walking with him alone because quite frankly if he ran off I doubt id catch him up. If people want to see this as "lazy parenting" fine, would rather have the disaproving looks than the looks of pity because my child was ran over because he ran off into a road.

I bought reins for ds1 - used them twice. Had the marionette issue. Same for ds2. And dd has never worn them. She walks, or goes in the buggy. What I do have is two wrist straps attached to the buggy handles so when we are crossing roads any child walking has to hold a strap. Even ds1 who is now nearly 7.

I suppose, according to some, I am rather lax on road safety (or rather pavement safety as I am strict about road crossing). But the risk of a child being abducted doesn't even figure in my decision making about reins. It must be the most devastating thing to happen, but luckily is also so extremely rare as to be statistically negligible.

I used reins with all my five, and I am certain saved the boys lives on many an occasion.

the couple of times they tantrumed so hard I gave in, I regretted it as they bolted, DS1 right in front of a car.

sadly the amounts of times I got told by a so-called friend that I was using 'dog-leads'......could have put off me had I been a 'weaker' type of person.......there seems to be a lot of judging about I find.

Used reins for both boys, particularly DS2 who would just walk in any direction (usually in front of a car), I never realised they were frowned upon!

(I think I am a very unmumsnetty person!)

my DS started walking a few weeks ago (he's almost 1) and it's been great to take him out on reins up and down our road recently. I do feel a little like walking an overexcited puppy and I try to hold his hand as well but he's too little to understand the need to hold on and he has a tendency to try and run ahead. I don't care what other people think of me, it's working for us. btw it was v cute to see him trying to hug the various traffic cones down our road and examining the broken ones carefully.