Rein/harnesses for children

pukkamum

I took reins to spain last year for my then 18mth lo as I knew there would be crowds etc well you not believe the comments we got from several older spanish women, basically they were berating me for treating her like a dog! They were horrified!

Tigsteroonie

elisebutt65 wrote: »

He was manic then and would just run without a care in the world. Reins weren't enough so I attached a retractable dog lead to them. Meant he could race off and then I could reel him back in when he'd gone too far.

:rotfl: I'm so pleased that I'm not the only parent that's done this! When we go to parks or castles, I have Andrew on reins, then a 5m puppy training lead, and then a retractable lead. It gives him a wide area in which to run (if there's nobody else around) but we can wind him back in when we're ready :rotfl: Yes, okay, it looks odd. But I don't care. He's safe.

notanewuser

I have used them with DD.

We took 5 2.5 year olds out to a farm yesterday and to be honest could have done with tying them all together!!

Raksha

I remember using reins with #1 son 30 years ago, but he threw a strop in Boots one day, leaned into them, his feet slipped from under him and he cracked his head on a shelf edge. 4 stiches and 2 hours in A & E later... Boots staff wouldn't even provide a plaster or call an ambulance.
I used to find they were too short to allow him a little freedom, so did use a dog lead attached to extend them

DKLS

These are a great invention I used one when I took my houdini neice out.



For those interfering wimmen type who would gawp and judge I taught little Maisy to make woof, woof noises

mummyroysof3

I like the little rucksack ones they make now. My youngest has a lady bird one but likes to hold your hand aswell

jellyhead

mumonashoestring wrote: »

As long as you're responsible for the safety of a tiny crazy person with the attention span of a gnat, the coordination of a drunk and no understanding of danger I think anything that evens the odds is a good thing

That sounds like me after a sleepless night :rotfl:

I used reins on both of mine, but not all of the time. They liked holding my hand, but I'm clumsy and scatty, so if we were going to be feeding the ducks it was best to be safe.

I'd get filthy looks from other mums, but if you're in the park and walking by the river then either using reins or putting them in the buggy makes sense. Unless it's nap time or they've already walked a long distance I'd prefer to let them walk on reins than keep them in a pram.

SingleSue

Reins were an essential item with my escapologist of a middle son (Aspergers, brain injury and other probs)...in fact, not just one pair of reins but several (he was a mini Houdini too and had the amazing ability to get himself out of a pair of reins in a second - never did work out how he did it)

We even had to put reins on his buggy, his high chair and his car seat, in fact, on his car seat he had the normal locking mechanism, 2 pairs of reins and a special harness designed for special needs kids where one harness is not effective enough...he could still work his way out of the lot of them!

Not only that but when he was at primary school, they built a fence designed to stop the children escaping, I took one look at it and said he would get over that in no time, they disagreed and said no it was specially designed......the very next day, he escaped from the school, going over their specially designed fence with no trouble at all.

Thankfully he is 16 now and not so much of an escapologist but it scared the living daylights out of everyone when he was younger.

Eldest had reins for a short time but he soon found out what a great game it was launching himself off the ground and mummy (or daddy) picking up the slack so that he became a flying child......:rotfl:. He was fine at holding my hand or the handle of the buggy containing middle son.

Youngest didn't have reins as a youngster for walking as he was too blooming scared of the world to walk anywhere (plus he also has a physical disability so walking was painful) and would plonk himself down refusing to move whilst going into mental meltdown. He was in a buggy until he was 6 or 7 but he also had reins on his car seat plus the special harness as he would get into a panic if we went off route and try to escape...we decided the special harness was needed after he was trying to climb out of the car window one day!

Thankfully those days are long gone now and they all walk nicely beside me..well they would look a bit silly at the age of 19,16 and 15 wearing reins!

dizziblonde

jellyhead wrote: »

That sounds like me after a sleepless night :rotfl:

I used reins on both of mine, but not all of the time. They liked holding my hand, but I'm clumsy and scatty, so if we were going to be feeding the ducks it was best to be safe.

I'd get filthy looks from other mums, but if you're in the park and walking by the river then either using reins or putting them in the buggy makes sense. Unless it's nap time or they've already walked a long distance I'd prefer to let them walk on reins than keep them in a pram.

To be honest - by the time you've had filthy looks from the other mums for breast or bottle feeding, traditional or baby-led weaning, what type of nappies you use, the amount of money you've spent on a pram... reins or no reins keeps 'em out of mischief a bit longer sending hacky looks to people.

suki1001

My dd was the world's greatest explorer when she was little. I used to say if I let her go off - she'd come back with a job and a flat. I remember being out with a friend her son sat calmly, while my dd was just constantly on the move and she could escape easily from a holding hand.

So I got reigns, they helped but I had to stop because she would frequently decide to just lift her feet off the ground in them expecting me to take her whole weight. They didn't have those nice backpack ones in those days, she probably would have liked them - they do look a bit more friendly.

I never needed one with my son, he was happy to hold my hand.