Children: Wild Things or Small Humans?

For Christmas I bought my children leashes. They look like cute little plush backpacks. Genevieve's has an adorable sunflower, and Jackson's has a Dalmatian puppy head.

We were at the library for story time, a couple weeks before Christmas, and my small creatures ran wild. This is not unusual, but they're getting bigger and faster. They don't like to be confined to their stroller (and really, why should they be all the time when Bentley isn't? It's just not fair!), but they lack good sense. I hear that's common in young children. :-)

So anyway. We were at the library. I wasn't even alone with the kids, I had the Grandma backup along. Even so they went crazy and I found myself feeling way way out of my league with my three small offspring. So I sent Grandma off on a mission (despite her protests) during nap time the next day to pick up the last two in stock wild thing containment devices.

Christmas has come and gone, the children have been out of the house and acting crazy since, and I still haven't used my leashes. Today in Costco I put them on the kids before they wandered, but never actually pulled the leash section out of its hiding spot. I'm still trying to work through my embarrassment issues. I used to laugh (in horror!) at children on leashes. They're kids, not dogs, right?! And shouldn't they be well mannered and controllable, particularly by their clever Mother? I think it's not too much to ask. But yet... sometimes I'm about ready to pull out my hair when we take them out in public. It always starts out well enough. We've just arrived and they're content to sit in the cart or the stroller. Then they start to get restless. It's either let them exercise their legs a bit or hear them exercise their lungs a lot. Tough call.

My husband, after a weekend shopping trip to Burlington Coat Factory, proposes that we simply keep them locked up in the house until they're 18. He hadn't been shopping with all 3 kids since when the twins were still in carseats, and I think he found the whole experience a bit much.

I don't think his solution is going to work. So keep us in your thoughts. Maybe the kids will suddenly start acting beautifully, all the time, while in public. Or? I'll summon up my "I don't care what you think" spirit and try out the leashes. Maybe I should just think of it as leashes are one step up from strollers, right? In a stroller the poor kids are completely constrained. With a leash? Some freedom. It's a kindness on my part!

*** Today, seeing the twins wearing their lovely leashes, Bentley was quite envious. He requested that I buy him one too. I wonder if he'll change his mind when he catches whole vision of what the backpacks are for? :-)