The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!

[disneyaddict]

I suppose you could even liken a playpen to a dog crate if you want to keep up the child/pet comparisons.

Oh, please...don't fuel the fire!!!

[drcorey]

Oh, please...don't fuel the fire!!!

hmm, child training cage?

[hobie16]

My middle kid was born with a lot of problems which meant he did a lot of time in hospitals. He had no feeling in his legs so he over compensated by using his upper body and was able to do 20 chin-ups when he was able to reach the kitchen counter. This also meant he was strong enough to pull himself over the top of the hospital cribs and make a break for it.

He was in one time and had made a midnight excursion before being found in another department. When we went in the next morning a plexiglass dome had been secured to the top of the crib making it look more like a fish bowl.

[DisneyMom]

Actually I have no opinion either way. I wasn't tethered as a kid, but I spent time in a playpen and I don't think it had too many ill effects...or at least none that wouldn't have shown up anyway. ;)

Other than identifying with a Pixar Villain? ;)

[felinefan]

I'm the middle of five kids, and we had to look out for each other--my older brother and sister kept an eye on us three younger ones, whenever mom and dad were doing something. Today, kids seem to be so self-absorbed that a system like that would be a recipe for disaster.

I have this old collection of Reader's Digest humor, and one of the anecdotes was this American woman had a friend in Australia, and she sent this lady in Australia a playpen, because she had a couple of active toddlers. The Aussie lady wrote her friend "The playpen is an absolute godsend. I can sit in it and read all day and the children can't get near me." :D:

[Ms. Matterhorn]

but millions of japanese don't think so.
and I think thier kids are a little more behaved than our kids are. slightly...

Some cultures eat dogs.

I had a harness for my very active son when he was 2-3. He remembers and says it made him feel safe knowing that Mommy was on the other end.

[ktulu]

I have one of those "invisible kid" leashes, you know, like the invisible dog ones.

[Canuikstan]

i was talking to my mother about this subject, and was shocked to find that i was a "leash baby" until i was 4.

I don't remember it, but we did decide that the leash is probably why i took off as soon as i turned 16 :)

of course, once i turned 5, i was taking off at 7 am and coming home whn the streetlights turned on spending the day with my friends and no one ever worried or had a searchparty organized back then, and i wouldn't dare let my 11 year old do what i did..

[Ms. Matterhorn]

I have one of those "invisible kid" leashes, you know, like the invisible dog ones.

You do not!

[Mayonnaise]

I'm the middle of five kids, and we had to look out for each other--my older brother and sister kept an eye on us three younger ones, whenever mom and dad were doing something. Today, kids seem to be so self-absorbed that a system like that would be a recipe for disaster.

It also doesn't work if the kids are too close in age. My brother was 2 and 1/2 years younger than me, but the same size (because I was small, not because he was big,) and thus never listened to a word I said. The first and last time my parents ever left me in charge of him, (I was 13 and he was 10) I had to lock myself in my room and call them to come back, because he invited a friend over without permission, and they physically overpowered me when I told him he had to send his friend home. After that we had babysitters for another three years until HE was old enough to not need one, because I couldn't "handle the responsibility." It wasn't till I went off to college and he got bigger than mom that they realized I wasn't just crying wolf all the time.

There's no way I could have made him stay near our parents in a park. I'd be headfirst in a flowerbed, and he'd be in the wind before you could say boo.

More on Topic: we were both "leash kids." The wrist strap kinds. I actually remember mine... the wrist strap was rainbow and the leash part was one of those red translucent plastic/gell curly cords. I was one of those babies that always wanted down, and would never stay in the stroller, so I'm sure it was great for my parents. I don't recall ever really being bothered by it... and by kindergarten it was a thing of the past.

8^)