Mom Who Leashes Her Daughter's Wrists While They Are Grocery Shopping Is Called 'Overprotective'
More and more parents are opting for the "leashing" method of safety.
TikTok After her video went viral, a mother on TikTok is receiving a lot of hate for the way she chooses to keep her children safe — leashing them.
Often seen as a controversial subject, parents who leash their children have always been stigmatized and looked down upon. It’s believed that these people aren’t good parents or that they’re far too overprotective and controlling, but Alexis believes she’s just keeping them safe.
The mom believes that she’s ‘protecting’ her daughter with a child leash that attaches to her wrist.
On February 17, 2023, Alexis posted a video showing her protection in action in response to a comment on one of her videos that read “Are you not tired [of] living this way?” Alexis frequently uploads videos of crimes that take place against children — things like abduction — and it’s very clear that this is something that she’s worried about happening to her own precious babies.
The caption of her video response is “I’m tired of the world being this way but I’m NEVER tired of protecting my girls. I’m okay looking like a crazy mom. As long as my babies are safe.”
In the video, she can be seen inside a Dollar Tree with her daughter sitting in front of her in a shopping cart. She attaches the wrist wrap to herself first and attaches the other end to her daughter.
The wrist wraps are attached to each other with a kind of rubber rope, and once they are connected, the two are inseparable. The practicality of this child's leash is clear, but that doesn’t stop people, like the one she’s responding to, from being negative about her efforts in keeping her children safe.
In a separate video, she shows how she also uses a child leash backpack for her older daughter while using the wrist leash for her younger daughter. This time, they’re at the park and going for a walk with their father/Alexis’s husband.
“Better ‘crazy’ than sorry, you are doing a great job mom,” one of the comments read.
There is very little data on leashing children, but it’s becoming more and more common.
On Alexis’s page, there has been an outpouring of support for her choice to leash her children. Not only that, but other TikTok creators who are also mothers have commended her as well, proving that the practice is becoming more mainstream and normalized.
A mom named Victoria made a stitch where she defended Alexis from the negativity she was receiving or would likely receive in the future.
“Imagine giving a mom s--t for doing everything in her power to keep her child safe in a country that is hostile to children/women/vulnerable people,” she wrote to overlay her video. In the video, she talks about her own experiences as a woman and the experiences of people that she knew in order to emphasize how unsafe the world is.
“Whenever I’m bending down to get something or I’m turning for a second in an aisle and I have my kids with me, I hold their ankles to make sure that there’s not a chance of somebody snatching them,” she said. “This is the world that we live in.”
Viral videos showing children being abducted from shopping carts are popping up every other day, and the stats are staggering as well.
According to FBI estimates, via Kraut Law, approximately 840,000 children are reported missing each year. Luckily, most of these children make it home to their parents, but parents don’t want to be unlucky ones.
Benjamin Hoffman, chair of the injury prevention council at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), said to Good Housekeeping in April 2019, “We don't have data on injuries associated with the leashes, but we also lack information about why parents use them, and what any benefit might be.”
Despite the insufficient data, he doesn’t believe that parents should use leashes.
Ray Kleposki, a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from Texas said pretty much the same thing, telling Good Housekeeping “We’ve never seen a safety harness injury. That said, a harness doesn’t substitute for close and appropriate child supervision.”
No amount of parental supervision seems to feel like enough for parents who live in a country where the statistics speak for themselves.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.