Does anyone else find this offensive?

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Maybe it's a regional thing. When I was a baby my older brother wore one, but when we moved from Newfoundland to Colorado my mother stopped using it because people gave her a hard time about it.

I don't see the problem. It's safer. I probably could have benefited from such a thing even as an older, school age kid. I didn't run off, but I would wander off and stare at things, utterly silent and spaced out, not responding when yelled for.

Given that nowadays parents in general seem to be getting worse at educating their children properly, there should be a law forcing to keep them on leashes... most dogs behave better than most children lately, and they force to keep *them* on leashes.

It was scary. And then she grew up to be a teenager. That was scarier.

I believe the person who takes the pic (they are submitted) have to have permission from the people in the pic for it to be posted, so these people agreed to have it on. The caption made no sense. There are many people who put these on their kids. Not just special needs. I was close to putting one on my son (who does have AS) as he would wonder off, very quietly. Most the time we carried him or used the stroller or we'd put him in the cart, which he hated. These ones are actually better than just the harness. They more resemble a backpack. If i were to buy one, that is the one i'd buy!

I noticed a lot of people thinking this kid is 7 or 8? My daughter is just as tall (besides the cart) and she is 4. I guess that is what the big confusion is about. They think the kid is older than he probably is?

Last edited by AMD on 28 Sep 2009, 9:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

there's the odd 'busybody' types who frown upon children being on a leash. They think it demeans the child, regardless of the actual use or purpose of the leash. They'd rather kids ran around and got into things.

I've never seen a human on a leash before.

I used a harness for my daughter when she was a toddler and she was definitely not special needs. She was such an active kid, she wanted to be able to walk in public places, but didn't want to hold hands with me for long. The harness gave her a way to have her freedom of movement and still be safe from various hazards. She loved it and it helped me because I didn't have to constantly reprimand her or try to catch her when she decided to run away. If I got tired, I could sit down on a bench and let her run in circles around me.

Heheh. He was born for diveing.

My 11 year old son is AS, and also has a mood disorder. When he was about 3 , he went from being a mild-mannered, inquistive little boy, to being completely out-of-control MANIC. At the time, we didn't know what was going on, or that he had some kind of condition. But if I took him out, he'd go running wildly across streets. It wasn't a case of discipline or teaching him right from wrong. He just completely lacked that impulse control, because of the mania. I eventually got a leash for him, and got a few dirty looks because of it. The leash didn't work, though. He would wind himself around poles and get stuck.

I didn't look at the video or pictures. I decided long ago that Wal-Mart was evil, and I will never set foot in one of their stores. I never have. (I realize in many areas, there is no choice. They've taken over the world. So creepy.)

I have to admit that I thought the same way until I had kids with ASD. My daughter really wasn't really all that hard to keep up with, so I was ignorant to the struggles that other parents faced. As I'm growing older life is teaching me that just when I think I have a solid black, and white opinion on something there really might be another side of the story to consider.


No, the pictures don't need permission. Anyone can take them, and submit them without the knowledge of the the person in the photo. I think the site owners really should at least blur the faces of people. To be honest, some of them are funny. I mean who forgets to put on pants before they go shopping? But, making fun of kids, especially special needs kids, isn't funny.

My son has the frog harness, instead of the monkey. I think that I'm going to buy some autism awareness buttons to attach to it so that people are at least aware that he has autism. No one has ever said anything negative to me about it, but then again it's really obvious that my son has special needs. People do stare a lot, though.

Thanks to all of you that shared you stories of having to use a harness. I should've used one for my older son, too when he was younger. He is much higher functioning than my 5 yo, but he was as someone else said a 'houdini'. The kid could get out of anything, and was always on the go. He's almost been ran over several times by breaking away from me in parking lots, and has hidden in clothes racks, dove headfirst out of shopping carts... ect.. I didn't know that he was autistic until he was 4, and I never even considered a harness for him. I still have a little bit of a problem with him not paying attention to where he's going, and wandering away, but nothing like it used to be. Unfortunately, my younger son is probably going to need the harness for years to come.

Eh it's just (really bad) humor. Humor often makes fun of a subgroup and thus insults someone somewhere. Odd looking (read: different; just like us here) people are often a target.

I took off all the time when I was little. I just liked wandering off and didn't know my limits. My parents tried to put me on a leash but I hated it so they never did it again. They just kept a close eye on me. That must have been very difficult because you can't keep an eye on your kid every single minutes when you are shopping or paying for your items. My mom told me she turn her back and then turn around and I be gone. Then she found this leash that goes around the child's wrist and the mother's and she bought it and it worked for a while until I figured how to take it off. She also kept me in a stroller too. I even had to wear this bracelet on my wrist with my name and address on it and phone number.

In Canada, they would have to remove it since it is LAW that you can't post somebodys picture up and ridicule them without permission if they are not a public figure.Canada has very strict privacy laws and if that was in Canada, the poster would be liable even if the pic was removed since it was posted without permission.

It's never a nice thing for someone to take a photo of someone else and publicly mock them. It's okay to be offended by this.. as long as you can see the humour in it Which applies to anything, of course!

I think they are more acceptable in the uk than in the U.S. They're a good idea really, the kid can walk about but can't run off. In the uk I've seen ones that are little rucksacks with a clip at the front with the leash attached to the rucksack, they're quite cute, you can get ladybirds nod other patterns. I think a lot of people use reigns over here.

I find the caption strange and forced.

Like others said, you could claim the picture was of you. Or you could ignore it.