[Note:  This is a short series of blogs that are a mental exercise in organizing my thoughts to ultimately create a few short articles.  Please forgive any hypothetical, theoretical, grammatical, or other errors as I hammer this into a less-shapeless form. Gentle comments and suggestions welcome.   Thanks for your patience. --DP] For the ‘runner’ segment of the article, please see the following link:  “Runner Link”

Child leashes and alternatives:

“Yes, but what if your child is A RUNNER”?

“My child doesn’t run, he clings to my leg so I can’t walk!”

Scenario: The un-twin twins  (continued…)

You have two-and-a-half year old twins. You know they are yours and you know they are twins because you were there. They came out of the same womb on the same day. And that is where the similarities ended. From day one they grew and developed into two diametrically different beings.

Casey is hyperactive and gregarious. She has no fear, and no discretion. She will talk to anyone, anywhere, about anything…all the time.

Charles  is quiet and contemplating. Sensitive and cautious, he holds each bite of food in his mouth a full minute before chewing and swallowing. In the same time his sister has finished off a 6,000 calorie course with two glasses of milk and is running out in the gardenias and heather chasing squirrels.

All that is fine and dandy…while you are home. But today, and every Tuesday, you have to get the groceries.

You shuffle down the neatly packed aisles, with chatty Casey running ahead, and Charles firmly gripping to your leg, more closely applied than a mollusk to its shell. You asymmetrically drag along slowly, while calling ahead for Casey to slow down and stay close.

She gets to the end a full half-length ahead of you, and turns the corner. You hear the “CRASH”, and a moment later the overhead blare: “Clean up on Aisle 10, end-cap”. All you can do is continue to shuffle your way hurriedly to the end of the lane and hope no one is hurt…..

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Gripsterz Helps for The Clinging Child

The clinging child, Charles, in our above illustration, helps demonstrate another benefit of Gripsterz.  The monkey handle allows a slightly less-than-bold child to hold a familiar ‘pal’, and the attachment remains as a physical connection to Mom, helping bestow the child with the comfort and confidence they need to venture a little more out on their own, while freeing up just a little extra space to allow Mom to walk in comfort.

The Agora Principle

The “agora” was the wide-open public square of Ancient Greece.  It is the root of the term “agoraphobia”, or fear of wide-open spaces.

Gripsterz encourages an apprehensive child to take an extra step and explore a little more, and slowly build their confidence in a comfortable and secure environment.  Children develop their space-compensating capacities at different tempos.  Just as a newborn is better able to cope with a small, confined space such as a bassinet, and a slightly older baby can cope with a pack-and-play better than a wide open room, it is similar with growing children being exposed to the “agora”.

Children ‘grow’ their space-comfort and space-compensating capacities over time.  Many children these days spend a fair part of their day indoors at home, at nursery, at daycare, at school, at Church.  It takes time for them to develop comfort in larger open areas, particularly where there are a lot of people and/or variables.  Some examples of places would include a shopping mall, a busy city street, a large store or supermarket.  Processing all of these variables when new can be understandably intimidating to some children and cause them to cling to what is known and secure:  usually Mom’s leg.

We have a good friend who has twins very similar to the above description.  When we originally designed Gripsterz we had in mind the ‘keeping your little ones close’ concept.  Our friend used it and alerted us to the tremendous relief she was given as it “gave me my leg back and let me walk comfortably with both kids”.

Please share your stories of ‘leg huggers’ or ‘runners’ with us!