VIDEO: Mum Drags Toddler-In-Reins Along Ground
Posted by JeanneSager at 2:45 PM on August 6, 2009
It’s been three months since a mother was arrested for child abuse, but suddenly a video of her literally dragging her kid on a toddler leash through a US technology shop has gone viral.
And people are still trying to defend her.
Hit the jump and take a gander at the video:
It doesn’t look like this was a normal scene in any shopping centre anywhere in the world – a cranky kid kicking and screaming, forcing the mum to drag the child out of the shop by the arm. I mean, we’ve all seen it, we’ve all done it, right? Countless times.
It looks to me like this woman wasn’t a) watching what happened to her child (did you see near the end, where she almost slammed his head into the wall as she rounded the corner?) or b) a frustrated mum at the end of her tether desperate to avoid a tantrum/meltdown in a busy shop.
But that’s exactly the defense being thrown up – that this child was naughty, and his mum was just trying to get him out of there.
I’m not big on parents who put kids on reins to begin with, and it’s a prejudice that pre-dates my own parenting. I was walking out of a mall restaurant once, only to have a child on a leash dart out in front of me. Knowing I’d fall, I erred on the side of caution, twisting my body so that my back jarred against the hard mall floor. The child landed on top of me, unharmed. And what did I earn for my sore hip? Angry parents who blamed me for walking into their reins instead of themselves for letting their kid run six feet in front of them on a wire at calf-height.
Reins are godsends for parents in certain situations: single parents going to an airport with all their bags, plus their child’s; parents taking a small child into a big city for the first time; parents with an occupied stroller in one hand and a curious, fast-running toddler with a death-wish in the other – particularly on footpaths alongside busy roads.
But reins beg for abuse – parents can sometimes think they no longer have to watch what their child is doing because the reins act as a sort of a babysitter. And this can lead (excuse the pun) to unwittingly dragging a child around a store. For a nano-second or two. Tops.
This mum here was arrested for felony child abuse. And her child suffered injuries to his neck.
So what do you think? Does this vid outrage you or can you not see what the fuss is all about? Would you defend the mum?
As a fellow toddler leashing mom I WANT to defend this woman because, as you said, it IS very easy to not notice a fall or not see that the child has stopped to look around and accidentally drag him/her… BUUUTTT…IM NOT GONNA cuz I know There’s also a very obvious tug to the lead when this happens, so obviously, you turn around and fix the problem… My 15 moth old just yesterday had a break down in the mall… So I get it, you’re in a public place with a monster who is screaming and rolling on the floor so.. You’re the paremt you pick the kid up (keashed or not) and take his/her ass to the bathroom or to the nearest exit and administer a punishment. (We talk it out then usually administer a spanking then and there.depending on the situation. I have absolutely no problem spanking my child in public. If more people did it we woulnt have such bad kids these days) but anyway.. You don’t drag a kid through a store on the floor that’s for one, reallt gross and for 2 pretty unhuman. She deserves her jail time.