Since When Has It Become Unfashionable
to hold your small child's hand while walking through a busy parking lot? Again, I watch in horror as I see a very active young boy, no more than 5 or 6 years old flying through the the busy parking lot of my gym in advance of his mother (which people use as a cut through to Taco Bell ironically enough). I see this all.the.time with the under 35 year old mother/father set. I'm surprised there aren't more injuries/fatalities in parking lots!!!
WTF??!!!
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I still hold my five year
I still hold my five year olds hand .. however I am 42 yrs old.
Neither of the children holds
Neither of the children holds our hand in parking lots at this point but they know better. If they acted that way not only would SO have their hands but they’d also regret it. When we’re going somewhere normally I’m in the front with both kids behind me and SO behind them. When we cross a street one of us enters the street first and the kids hurry past us. This way at all times there is an adult between them and moving cars. The only real worry we have is other cars that have been parked not paying attention and backing up. The little one is so tiny it would be easy to miss him but we stay close enough together that HOPEFULLY they would see either me or SO.
We don’t hold hands for different reasons. We’d like to say it’s about giving them independence. For me it’s that I feel very uncomfortable holding anyone’s hand while I’m walking. The oldest tries to sometimes and I’ll let her for a moment but I just can’t handle it. I need my bubble. SO doesn’t because of his injuries. This time of year he uses his good hand for his cane and he doesn’t like to use his other because of the nerve damage.
I still make 13 year old hold my hand sometimes
But I'm 43 and I also used a child leash when she was small (under 4). And when SS was younger because he wouldn't listen or behave. (So like 6-7 years old).
OMG the judgment you get from
OMG the judgment you get from using a tether. My sister REFUSES to use one but instead carries her kids EVERYWHERE. The little one turns 3 next month and her stress level when we go somewhere is insane.
As soon as I started watching my nephew I went and got him a little back pack that had the tether. He LOVED it. He got to walk by himself and I felt safe letting him. It was physically painful to bend down and hold his hand and I couldn’t just hold him all the time either. It was nice to know I could put him down to pay for something and he wouldn’t be able to just slip off without me knowing. I NEVER trusted the tether alone and a good parent doesn't use it like a dog leash to drag around their kid.
Both my sister and I
were raised up using a tether. This was in the city of Montreal and also Toronto. No one gave it a second thought but then again this was in the 60's when parenting ruled supreme!
I saw a dad recently get on
I saw a dad recently get on his kid about taking off in the parking lot. He walked his child up to the truck he ran in front of (parked), stood him in front of it and asked him "Do you think the driver can see you?....This is why you do NOT run through here...etc. etc." It was a fine bit of parenting.
It's one thing I did not ever disengage from. DH let them run and mess around all the time.
Once we were on vacation and waiting at a stoplight at a very busy intersection with people, cars, buses, bikes, etc. all whizzing by. SDs started messing around, dancing and jumping and spinning right on the curb. I immedately stopped that - older SD (of course) asked me why not? "Because I don't want to see you or your sister get smashed by a car!" Then DH agreed (oh thanks!).
The good thing is DH really got on SD12s case this summer - we were on vacation (again) and she was messing around, and before we started crossing a busy street (no signal) it looked like she was going to just rush out there in front of a truck. DH grabbed her and pulled her back and we both said "WAIT!!!" She was PO'd but we explained that we didn't know WTH she was doing and didn't want her hurt. ACK!
This is my
husband's biggest pet peeve. We drive a taller mini van and we see kids running around parking lots all the time. And unfortunately if we hit a child we would likely be held at fault and have to deal with the guilt.
I still hold my nine year old niece's hand if it is dark or a parking lot is especially busy. Typically we carry our 3 year old grandson through the parking lot.
Oh, I know. It is awful. What
Oh, I know. It is awful. What are these morons thinking?
I see this unfortunately way too often. Most times, the parent(s) is completely oblivious to what their kid(s) are doing while the kids are running around everywhere, sometimes screaming and getting into things wherever they are, running around cars in parking lots. 75% of the time I notice they are not paying attention to their kids it is because they are on their phones, texting, surfing, talking.
I just want to say something to these lax parents.
This past weekend, I went to a store I vow I will never go to on the weekend again, because it's full of younger parents and kids running amok. During the week, it isn't so bad when the kids are in school and the parents are at work. While Entering the store I see 2 kids running in the parking lot toward the store..just awful. While in the store, kids screaming for things while parents just ignoring them while on the phone, saw a child playing on a dirty floor. Ugh! People please pay attention to your children!
i feel better now.