Mom Who Keeps Baby on Leash Met with Support on TikTok, Despite Criticism

The golden rule of the internet is that if you do anything on it there will be a number of armchair experts who will, at length, criticize every single thing that you do.

Are you a sick guitarist playing at blisteringly fast speeds? Someone will chime in and say your sweep picking needs work or that you're overly technical and need to know how to "groove" better.

One of the touchier things that folks love to comment on, however, is how folks decide to raise their children. You'll have people who'll call childhood protective services on people who feed their kids fast food or refined sugars. And you'll have those who will advocate for the common core curriculum up and down and call you a monster for teaching your kid the old-school way of completing long division.

But as the saying goes: everyone has opinions. But some of the opinions are rooted in research, like putting your kids on a leash. Something that caused a ruckus on a viral TikTok that shows a mom with their child at what appears to be a youth sporting event in a gym.

TikToker @jordanvarneau uploaded a clip of a baby trying to crawl onto a basketball court as a woman, presumably (and hopefully) the baby's mom and not a professional child walker, pulls them back on said leash.

A text overlay in the video reads: "Bubba was getting super frustrated." Upon viewing the clip, it's understandable why folks would have conflicting emotions.

On one hand, it can be argued that this is important life training for the little fellow. Since life ultimately ends in a loss, i.e. we grow old and die and there's nothing to stop it, constantly pulling them back on the leash could teach the child that the entire point of life is to generate enthusiasm in even the most seemingly hopeless of situations.

It's like the parable of Sisyphus. If you aren't familiar with the tale it's classic ancient Greek insanity: Hades was salty at the king of Ephyra, Sisyphus, for cheating death twice. So he was like you know what? If you like an eternity so much I'm going to show you what life's really about: try rolling this rock up a hill for all of eternity and right when you make it to the top, it's gonna roll right back down.

Sisyphus could give up and just be like, "Man, screw this rock" and just lay down and do nothing. But since that's literally all he can do, he goes on rolling that rock up the hill, probably getting super jacked in the process. Maybe this woman is trying to teach this child that parable in action.

Or she could be committing child abuse for the dark humor/entertainment of strangers on the web. Good Housekeeping writes: "Data on the safety of kid leashes is scarce, and the chair of the injury prevention council at the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against using these types of items."

It seems that the majority of TikTokers who saw Jordan's post and commented on it, however, didn't have a problem with the fact that she had a kind on the leash. Some said that they used to judge parents who would put kids on leashes until they had children of their own.

And then there were those who said that they were "leash kids" themselves and don't really remember it all that much. Others noted that the child seemed to be having a great time getting pulled back every time they crawled away.

What do you think? Do you agree with the Good Housekeeping article, or would you rather cite what Stamford Advocate pointed out about child harnesses that there aren't cases that point to the products being inherently unsafe and therefore fine for use?