this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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AFAIK it's acceptable if the parent is walking or sitting with the child. It's only abusive if you tie the leash outside while you go run some errands in a store, or if left attached in the backyard.
Yeah, that's why you left them in the car
They like the warmth. It sends them to sleep.
Yes officer, this right here.
Leashing kids is not normal, or acceptable.
I grew up with 6 siblings, and divorced parents. Never in my life have I, or my siblings, been leashed (by our parents at least).
I'd never even seen a child on a leash until I went to the Georgia Aquarium, where I saw lots of kids on leashes. All the kids had the same kind of parent holding the lead. Some huge bitch with her nose stuck in her phone instead of enjoying the day with her kid that she fucking paid for.
Leashes are not normal, they are a sign of abuse.
"Oh, it's needed for the kid's safety"
No, it is not. I've been to cliffs, canyons, Yellowstone, caves and big cities in all kinds of venues, and I've only seen kids on leashes specifically in child-friendly venues, playgrounds, museums, and zoos, in the Bible-belt areas of the US. It's not dangerous for kids to be off a leash and have some autonomy. If you are taking them to a place where it's dangerous for them to act like children...then why the fuck are you taking them there in the first place?!
"My kid has special needs..."
Still doesn't need a fucking leash. I worked at a daycamp for special needs children, and we never leashed or even restrained a child unless they were doing something dangerous to themselves or others. Even then, there was paperwork for the incident, and the restraint was always temporary. At 16 years old, I was a camp counselor for 4 special needs children at a time. An adult does not need a leash for just one.
There is one thing that leashes give parents, and that is a sense of physical domination of their child. Anything else is just an excuse.
It's normal enough. I saw a couple of kids on wrist leashes just this weekend at a very crowded outdoor event. The kids were probably about 2 and 3. I have a 3 year old as well, and didn't have him on a leash because he's responsive to my voice calling him and has decent (for his age) impulse control. I didn't judge or have negative impressions of those parents. They were present and just trying to enjoy the event with their kids. It's HIGHLY kid dependent. When I was a toddler, I was the type to just run off in a crowd and I could have saved my mother a lot of grief and panic if she had a leash for me. It's just another tool available to parents.
It's important not to project your feelings as an adult, because you have different assumptions, associations and contexts tied to leashes than a toddler does. Generally, toddlers are taught to have shame or be embarrassed about things, their default sentiment to most things is extremely pragmatic. A toddler on a leash will be focused on the tactile sensation of it on their wrist or body, the effect it has of limiting their movement, and not much else. Think about when you saw those kids on leashes... were they upset about the leash? Were they trying to get out of it? Were they asking their guardians to please take it off? Or were they just kinda being silly kids running around exploring?
Also to this:
Sometimes you just have no other option. A fair price for babysitting is $20+ USD an hour. Not every toddler is in or has access to daycare. Not every family has grandparents close enough to drop them off with. Sometimes bringing them along to a place with you is the only way they'll have supervision.
Probably, but I think at that point they'd learned not to complain to the person holding the lead that can yank them around like a dog.
I can tell you they weren't playing with the other kids. They were the only kids at the aquarium watching their parent more than the fish.
If it's so normal, where are all the movies and TV shows that portray kids on leashes? Where are the documentaries where people are waking around with leashed kids in the background? You don't see it, because it's not normal (in the US at least) outside of some very regressive areas.
I think we need to make a distinction between places that are dangerous for kids, and places that are inconvenient for parents. You don't have to take your toddler on a cliff walk, and you don't need to leash them at the grocery store, or the bank.
I've personally only seen kids on leashes in the context I mentioned above, of a large, crowded event where a few bodies moving in the way of your kid will break line of sight entirely. Outdoor festivals, concerts, fairs, amusement parks etc. I have never seen a kid on a leash at a playground or park or bank or grocery store etc. Toddlers are small and if there's a lot of bodies around it would be VERY easy to lose sight of them. If my kid ran off and broke my line of sight of him in a crowd I absolutely would have a moment of panic. Again, I'm not going to judge other parents for finding solutions to problems that don't harm the child.
I got away from my mother at a large event, and left her panicking and organizing other parents to search for me. When they found me she spanked me and yelled at me for running off. It wasn't the first time and wouldn't be the last. Obviously hitting me was wrong, but she was terrified of what could have happened to me. If she had just used a tether it would never have happened.
Something's lack of representation in media is not exactly a reliable metric of commonality, if it was, gay people sprang into being in the late 90s.
Your gay analogy doesn't work, because a culture of persecuting and demonizing gay people for thousands of years might have something to do with their refusal to publicly out themselves.
Wrong, it's perfectly normal.
From the sounds of things, you are not a parent trying to comment on things you know nothing about. The leash actually gives toddlers freedom they wouldn't otherwise have. It lets them walk around, with some constraints, instead of being stuck riding in a stroller all the time. Kids at that age will jet off real quick. You take your eyes off then for a second and they're gone.
It's not perfectly normal. Believe it or not, I was a child at one time. Never put on a leash. My brothers and sisters, never leashed. Nieces and nephews? No leashes for them. Okay maybe it's just my family.
Going to parties with other kids? Never saw a child on a leash there.
Out of state? I traveled many states as a kid, I didn't see other kids on leashes at the ST. Louis Arch, nor at the Smithsonian.
The first time I saw a kid on a leash, was in Atlanta, at age 14.
It. Is. Not. Fucking. Normal.
Just because YOU weren't didn't mean it isn't common. Your parents did it the hard way. For no reason.
I was leashed as a toddler in the early 90s. I am not ashamed of that.
You don't leash kids at parties, that's an enclosed private space with little risk of them running off, what a weird pointless anecdote. You apparently being sheltered isn't a good argument.
Sounds like you weren't going to places where very young children were in attendance. You use them in busy public places that require movement. Like a zoo. You see them all the time at places like that. It's better than a stroller and you don't have to worry about a half second of taking your eyes off the kids, they're jetting into the crowd. Even more useful if you have multiples.
Complete missed where I had traveled across the US as a kid.
I don't think I was a sheltered kid. 7 of us vs one parent at a time didn't leave a lot of bandwidth for them to be helicopter parents. Wasn't a latchkey kid either. I'd walk myself and my brothers home from school most days. During the summer we'd walk down to the pool on our own, or sometimes take a younger sibling with us if they wanted to go (surprise surprise, no leashes at the pool) or we'd walk across town and grab snacks from the grocery store (still no leashes).
Leashing kids is not normal, if you don't believe me, try to find video of a place where more than 3 are leashed in the background of a news report or puff piece.
The vast majority of kids aren't leashed. It's not normal.
Traveling across the US doesn't mean you went to places where small kids congregated. It's also more common NOW than it was back then.
Why are you acting like people are leashing 8-10 year olds. You use them when the kids are 1-3 so they're not stuck in their stroller the whole time you're at some public place (which is probably what your parents did with you). It really sounds like you think parents are tying their kid to a post, instead of having a connection on their wrist. Your arguments come across as if you have zero idea what we're talking about and only had a visceral overreaction to just hearing this concept for the first time.
The kids often enjoy it, too. They think they're the ones leading their parents.
What a stupidly arbitrary and specific demand for proof.
The kids I saw leashed were primarily in the 6-12 range if I had to guess. They absolutely were not 2-4.
I can find you a video of a news report with kids in the background where none of them are leashed in just a few minutes, mainly because the vast majority of children are not put on leashes.
I do not believe for a second that a 12 year old would sit there allowing themselves to be leashed. Some 12 year olds are basically full grown adult sized people.
I'm talking about toddlers. I've said that multiple times. You keep imagining dumb shit that is not happening. So you're right, the vast majority of non toddler children are not on leashes. Congrats. What a fucking stupid conversation this was. No one said otherwise. You invented a thing that wasn't happening to be angry at.
Well you're wrong.
Prove it
Amazon sells leashes sizesd for 12yr olds.
Special needs children do exist.
So do non-special needs kids.
Yes they do.
The leashes for 12 year olds though are used for special needs children.
Why are you being so obtuse?
This may come as a surprise to you, but special needs children are also human beings, and leashing them is wrong too.
Go back and re-read the thread
I’ve read every word. You’re being absurd.
You also spend way too much time watching other people’s children.
Do you have any of your own?
Well, you forgot what I put in my very first comment on the thread, so...doubt.
Way to make it sound creepy, but yes I see children when I got to zoos, aquariums, museums, national parks, banks, stores...etc.
No, but it doesn't matter. You probably agree with me that slavery is wrong? But have you ever had a slave? You don't have to personally experience abuse to recognize abuse.
https://youtu.be/5Hb1ID12dzo
Took me less than a minute. Kids of all ages in the video, not a single one on a leash.
It's not normal to leash kids.
You can find one video of people not doing one specific things, really easily. I'm not sure what you thought this proved.
I was always, and still, only talking about toddlers. Are there 3+ toddlers in a crowded public space in that video?
Sure. 3 plus kids, in crowded spaces next to a STREET! It's amazing they all survived.
On a related note, I didn't have to do anything special to find you that video. I just looked for "New Community Festival" and picked the first one that wasn't about a mass shooting. You know why it was so easy to find? Because leashing kids is not normal.
I specified TODDLER. You keep only saying kid. There's a difference. I know you know that. But your are determined to have a completely different conversation than I am here
I didn't say you had to do anything special. That's my point. It's really fucking easy to find videos that are completely off topic from the conversation.
Guess what?
Leashing toddlers is wrong too...And reality doesn't give a fuck about what you specified. You don't mean shit to nearly everyone on the planet.
Yes it is really easy to find video and media of children not on leashes, which conversely shows how hard it is to find videos of children (or even toddlers, why the fuck not) who are on leashes, because it's not fucking common.
If you said "Amputees are common" and I said "If they're so common, show me some media with a bunch of amputees in it" and you have to fucking dig for it, while I can pick a piece of media at random and expect it not to have any amputees in it, it's probably a really good fucking indicator that amputees aren't fucking common, right?!
Maybe your parents should have leashed you, maybe you'd wander off the fucking topic less.
HOW is giving your toddler exercise when they'd otherwise be out in the stroller wrong? They're not embarrassed by it. They often enjoy it. Where is the harm? This is you PROJECTING your own stupidly conceived feelings into someone else who isn't feeling those things.
You still can't grasp your video thing isn't indictive of literally anything. You looking at videos of shit where the topic wouldn't be occurring will obviously show that thing not occurring. How fucking dense are you that you think this proves Jack shit? Common also doesn't mean literally everyone is doing it.
Baseless ad hominem.
Do you think it is possible to get your toddler some exercise outside of the stroller without using a leash? Hint: most parents don't use leashes on their kids?
It's much more indicative of my point than the video that you found supporting yours!
Why don't you write me an essay about how you feel? Nevermind, you already did.
Why don't you write a snide comment that adds nothing to the conversation?
Nevermind, you already did.