Are You a Freak on a Leash?

How do you feel about leashes on kids?

I personally think it's a good idea at times and I have used a leash with Lucian. I used to raise an eyebrow at people who used leashes — until I became the parent of a curious toddler.

The thing that bugs me is the way people stare or when family members have chastised me for using one, whether they have kids or not. I didn't use it all the time, just times when I was with him by myself or just feeling extra insecure in an unfamiliar place like a big city with lots of cars. I plan on using a leash with our next child when I feel necessary as well, but I'm not looking forward to the way I feel when people stare at me. I won't let it stop me though.

I'm curious. What is the big freakin deal, people? Why do you stare at parents who choose to use a leash with their kids? Isn't it better than just letting their kids run wild all over the place? People complain about that as well.

I just want to be a good mother and using a leash makes me and my child feel safe. Isn't that what's most important? Isn't it better to give your child a little bit of space rather than digging your fingernails into their flesh or yanking their arms out of their sockets from dragging them? I've seen that happen and I don't want to use that method if I can help it. Parking lots and crowded malls are very scary places! You'll pull your kid by his hair or his eyelashes if that's the nearest thing on them when a car darts out at you!

It takes some practice to use a leash. It can be tricky and downright dangerous sometimes, but once you get the hang of it, you feel much more secure. If you plan on using a leash, be sure to practice somewhere first like your back yard or some place where you and your child can roam before you use it in public.

Do me a favor, next time you see a parent using a leash with their child, please smile at them and just know they are trying to do what they feel is best for their safety and security.

Thanks!

Check out more DadLabs videos. They're the dudes who give Dads their due!

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Mouse Paint (tag: Lucian)

Each month at Lucian's Preschool they focus on a book and do activities based on the story as part of their curriculum. This month the book is "Mouse Paint," by Ellen Stoll-Walsh.

http://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Paint-Ellen-Stoll-Walsh/dp/0152002650#

Lucian was very excited about this book and he was trying to describe it in detail when I picked him up at the bus stop.

This is how he looked when I picked him up this past Friday.

Later on that day, we played with some clear chap stick and he painted mouse whiskers on Mommy. Oh, and a pink nose too!

(I guess they were invisible whiskers, but he could certainly see them on me!)

I love his imagination.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Ring A Bell For Baby

Another Belly View Movie :)

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A Long List

Yes, it is a bit ridiculous that I could not fit the entire list in one screen shot.
Yes, I am a bit compulsive, but it's fun! :) Like I said, I like to tinker!!

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Living With Gestational Diabetes

A day in the life.
Lucian likes to help Mommy put a test strip in the meter.

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Some Results & Findings

Greetings from my iPhone. I'm now composing this post using the built in Mail app where it's mostly comfortable typing in landscape mode.

Drawbacks:
- No typesetting or text formatting available
- I can only seem to post one photo at a time

I'm thinking there has got to be a way to place more than one photo in an email on the iPhone and I just have yet to figure it out.

So, for now, here is a screen shot of my last blog post as seen from my iPhone. Notice how you can see and interact with only the YouTube video that was posted using a link, not an embed code. Of course the Vimeo video doesn't show because it's flash. Not sure why, but evidently the iPhone can't handle embed code for YouTube either.

For my next trick, I'm going to save this message as a draft and then edit it back on my MacBook Pro. Gmail IMAP syncing will allow me to do that. Pretty cool, eh?

Back To My Mac

Ok, now I'm back on the laptop composing this message in Mail.app. I took another screen shot, this time of my Blogger Blog from the Safari browser. As you can see, all three videos appear as intended. This is the same over on my Posterous Blog as well.

Oh yeah, that's the other limitation (among many others I'll think of) with composing blog text on the iPhone. You can't do that fancy little hyperlink thing like you can in Mail.app on the Mac.

Typesetting Results

The spacing at least looks much better this time around as opposed to last time I tried posting to my Blogger blog from email via Posterous. This time I'm going to add a hard return after the header since it was too close together in the previous post.

I'm also not changing the font from the standard Lucida Sans 12 pt. that my email client is currently set to.

No dice on color changes although now I'm wondering if I somehow stir in some html code in the text as I'm composing it in Mail.app, I wonder if that would do the trick? Problem is I don't know much code off the top of my head. I know how to do a <s>strikethrough</s>, but that's about it. And, I'm not even sure if I did that correctly. I wonder if composing this message in Rich Text as opposed to Plain Text will have much to do with that theory.

One way to find out!

Pressing the   Button now!! (there is supposed to be a copied screen shot of the send button there in that space, let's see if it shows up!)

Weeeeeee!!!!

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