[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]
Child leashes and alternatives:
Scenario: The un-twin twins
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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Regarding the Gripsterz handle, the voluntary child leash alternative: ” That’s fine for you, but our child is a “runner”. That’d never work for us…”
We did not truly understand what people meant until our seventh little guy came along. Now we really know what a runner is.
Our little Robert is nitrous oxide mixed with nirtoglycerine in a little cup, a “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over” (if you will forgive me stealing and slightly mismanaging a quote from Luke 6:38). He runs at 95 miles per hour, non-stop. When we read a bedtime story and his brothers and sisters (now 8 of them) are quietly laying down and listening, he’s buzzing around the room contributing explosive sound effects, whether the story is Buzz Lightyear or Bambi. Sometimes it seems he thinks if he can build up enough steam he can make it all the way up the curtains to perch like Spiderman on the valence (and he may be right–we still have one wall that needs repair from a near-success).
Anyway, Robert was just barely walking when we brought him home from the orphanage in Guatemala, but there was no way this little guy was going to hold the handle at first. That was when we realized we did indeed need a fall-back mechanism. Relying on science and psychology (think Linus Pauling’s ducklings), we tried a short period of a velcro wrist attachment. After about 1.5-2 weeks he had bonded with his “Grippy” and the wrist attachment was not needed. Better yet, since the handle is detachable from the connector strap, we were able to let him walk around the house all day with Grippy loosely strapped to his wrist. Grippy went with him everywhere–playtime, naptime, even dinnertime. They soon became fast friends and Robert still stays close in touch with his little Grippy pal when we are crossing parking lots, shopping in malls, or venturing through airports or theme parks.
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Gripsterz helps Moms with children who are ‘runners’. Some Moms have children who would ‘never voluntarily use a handle’. The Gripsterz package includes a velcro wrist strap that can be used as a temporary initial measure to help your child learn to stay connected. Since the handle and wrist strap are detachable from the rest of the connection system, you can let your child get adjusted and become pals with the Gripsterz monkey handle (we call him “Grippy”) in the safety of your own home.
Tags: child leash, child tether, Gripsterz
Yay! I’m so glad that I came across your blog thru an old one from Steady Mom!
I just loaded my almost 2 year old triplets up into the van for a trip to the park and wondered how to start going “stroller free” once my older 3 are back in school. Is is possible and safe for me to get 3 toddlers out of the van and walk anywhere when I only have 2 hands? I’ve been very reluctant to buy the harnesses. Just doesn’t set right with me, but might get to the point where safety wins. My “twipetts” listen pretty darn well, so I’m loving this idea of the Gripsterz! And would love to share it with our local Triplet Group!
Do you have any suggestions for using this with 3 kiddos? I guess I’d need just one and then use my hands for the other two. But can you add another gripster to the one tether with room for them to walk almost side by side while holding on? I guess if I don’t buy three someone will squeal!
Am I making any sense? I’d love to hear your input! Thanks so much!
Hi Angela! First of all – that ‘twipetts’ term is the absolute cutest thing I have heard in a long time! I have ‘twipetts’ right now too – sort of! From July to October each year, three of mine are the same age. So, we have three 3 y/o’s running around the house. I love this age – it is the age of discovery and communication and over-the-top cuteness. I can never decide if 3 or 4 is my favorite (or baby, or 6 or 10…), but that range is definitely one of the coolest times to see them grow and learn and express themselves.
OK- now about Gripsterz! You are definitely correct that it will be a huge help for you! Gripsterz is truly survival and enablement for us – we could not do half of the things that we do without Gripsterz along to help. And with Gripsterz, I am confident to go just about anywhere (anything but water activities!).
We designed Gripsterz with all types of options for use – you can assemble it many different ways to make it work the best for you and your family. I do suggest that you have one Grippy monkey for each child – you are correct that they will all want to have one! One of the benefits of Gripsterz is the fun aspect – kids recognize it as a toy and they like holding toys. Once you have three different Grippy rings, your options are virtually limitless for configurations of how to use it. The overall Gripsterz design has several connection points where you can connect multiple Grippy rings or vine straps or mommy handles.
On the Gripsterz product page of our website, there is a link to the “Instructions for Use” for Gripsterz – you can see and dream about all the fun ways that you can use just one Gripsterz from those instructions. You may even see ways that you could assemble it to work for more than one child!
Please contact me via the “Contact Us” link and we can talk about other ways that Gripsterz and our other products could really make your life easier and cuter (not that having 4 little ones is not as cute as it can get!).
Thanks for the comment and the questions! You can probably tell that I love Gripsterz and what it has done for our family. I truly hope that you can reap the same benefits!
[...] [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” [...]