A Monkey on His Back

A Blog inspired by last night's episode of Modern Family, in which Mitchell and Cam put their daughter, Lily, on a "child safety tether" (aka a leash).

A few weeks prior to our trip to Boston I was shopping at Goodwill with my mother and grandmother.  My grandmother was hunting for items to resell at her flea market booth, my mom was looking for whatever she could find, and I was keeping them company; with Ben dragging me around the store.

On our fifteenth trip to the toy section, filled with a large variety of toys I would never let my kid have, never mind touch, one item jumped out at me.  A "New-In-The-Box" Monkey Backpack/Tether.  That's right, a kid leash.  I picked it up....

When I was a young, naive, non-mom, I swore I would NEVER put my kid on a leash.  I frowned upon the moms dragging their kids around by a leash.  A good mom wouldn't need to put her kids on a leash because they would be perfectly well behaved and listen to everything their mother said. 

Then I had a kid.  My two year old is actually pretty well behaved.  He listens and usually complies with my requests.  He holds my hand or sits in his stroller when we are out.  Most of the time.  Ok, some of the time.  I'm a good mom, and Ben's a good boy, but seriously, he doesn't always want to do what I ask and he doesn't always want to hold my hand.  This really isn't a big deal when we are in our local grocery store, or even in the larger shopping centers.  He's not really going to go too far, and we can always leave and go sit in the car for a time out if we need to.

But with Monkey Backpack/Tether in my hands, and the impending trip to Boston, I had visions of my son throwing a fit in a T-station, or at the museum filled with people, or in a crowd at Quincy Market.  What would I do if he took off?  Or let go of my hand for a second and we got separated?  Or if someone actually wanted to take him?

I bought the damn child safety tether.

I'm happy to report that the novelty of "giving the monkey a piggy back" appealed to Ben.  He had no complaints wearing the little harness and during our practice trials, didn't want to take it off.  I'm also happy to say that for the entire trip in Boston, Monkey Backpack stayed attached to the back of Ben's stroller.  We didn't use it once.  But let me just say, I felt so much better knowing it was an option.  Maybe I'm not the good mom of my young, fanciful dreams, but at least I didn't have to worry about losing my kid in Boston.  Success!