Child Safety Harness: To Use or Not To Use?

A couple of days ago, I was looking through my Facebook newsfeed and noticed a former trainee of mine with a status about a toddler who is missing. My heart quickly skipped a couple of beats and looked through her timeline and found out that her niece was abducted from a local mall a few hours ago and still no updates. My heart sank further as I looked back at my newsfeed yesterday, it's been 24 hours since the toddler was lost and still no news. I posted the photo in the page that I'm managing for our playgroup and all the other local groups that I can think of.

It's every parent's nightmare, losing their child. One cannot imagine the pain and guilt that a parent or caretaker feels when it is their sole job to take care of the child. I shudder to think of the day that I would personally know the child...because my heart is already breaking for the situation at hand, and I don't know the child personally. I then looked at the possibility of a group centering at abducting children and what they would do with the children. Child trafficking has been a common thing but never in this city...Davao City is known is to be safe, and yet...this happened!

I told L last night about the situation and he, himself, was worried. He told me that D was not to go to any public places in the next few weeks, unless he is there with us. I looked at the calendar and checked D's social calendar...so far, the only place we go to weekly is at The POD for the playgroup, and he's gonna be absent for two weeks because he's still recovering from his circumcision. So, no mall trips for the next week or so.

I then got to thinking, I've been seeing parents use the child safety harness on their toddlers. Yes, I will admit, I am one of those people who swore that they will not be saying things like "Because I said so..." or who will be using such harnesses because I didn't feel the need for it. Well, I'm contemplating of purchasing one for D. Now, I could really care less about stares and side comments from people because I care more about D's safety. And to be honest, it is quite helpful especially if the toddler doesn't like to be strapped in the stroller or who doesn't want to hold one's hand when they enter the mall. It gives them a certain freedom but knowing that the parent or caretaker still has a hold on them.

Of course, the downside would be if the harness is used as a leash and dragging the toddler somewhere or pulling them because they're not following instructions. I've learned that in order to understand D, I need to communicate with him at his level. I would get down to his eye level and talk to him, he may answer in babbles and mumbles that would take me forever to understand but we're communicating. I'm not dictating or just telling him because I'm the parent. I've fully understood that D is a human being who wants things and wants to be understood and as the parent, I need to be more open to that than just telling him to do things because it needs to be done. Trust me, I'm not as patient as other people but I have managed to stretch whatever patience I have since becoming a mother.

So...what are your thoughts about using a child safety harness?