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What is a child safety harness?
Child safety harnesses – love them or hate them. These are very simple devices, similar to a harness you would use with a pet, nylon straps that go around a child’s waist and over his shoulders and attach to a leash that the parent holds in her hand. Such an arrangement allows a parent to keep the child close so he will not be able to wander away in a crowd situation or to dart out into traffic. Such an arrangement can also prevent a child from being abducted or molested, as it is difficult for a would-be predator to interfere with a child whose parent is right at the other end of a leash.
So what is the problem with using a harness? The main problem is in how other people perceive you. People who do not have small children often do not understand how hard it can be to supervise them in crowded or confusing situations, and they may not understand that a parent keeping their child on a leash is just a parent wishing to keep her child safe. All they will see is a child on a leash like a dog – and they will assume that the parent is treating the child as a pet. Some may even accuse the parent to her face of child abuse!
So what to do? How can you strike a balance between keeping your child safe and not having people perceive you as an abusive parent? There are certain variations of the harness you can use that might not appear to be quite so hard for others to take. One variant consists of a strap that attaches around a child’s wrist with velcro and is linked to a similar strap attached to an adult’s wrist. People tend to perceive these as being less “petlike” than harnesses, and appreciate the fact that the parent is linked to the child as well instead of being the one “holding the reins”, so to speak. The problem with the wrist strap is that it is very easy for a child to undo, so unless your child is exceptionally cooperative (in which case, he might not need any kind of restraint at all) this might not be your best option. There is yet another variant that appears to be a fanny pack worn by the child, this is linked to fanny pack worn by the adult. Again, this may appear to be less “petlike”, but will, of course, be easier for a child to detach than would standard harness.
There is, of course, the option of using an electronic safety alarm that will sound when a child wanders outside a certain preset area – but by the time the alarm sounds it may be too late for parent to react to forestall any problem – a sudden dart out into traffic while crossing a street, for example.
The harness, for all its shortcomings, really is the safest option for a parent needing to keep a small child under close supervision. If you choose to use one, you will need to develop a somewhat thicker skin and ignore those stares and comments, but it will be worth it to know you are doing your best to ensure your child’s safety.
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