To leash or not to leash

I started writing a very long comment responding to Grandmoo about leashes, so I figured I should just post.

I've seen the kid leash a couple of times, but not in the Northeast. The trend here is to keep the kid in the stroller until he's 6. I personally think you're not doing your kid much of a service not teaching him to keep his hands off of stuff, and the irony that we're an obese nation when we don't have our little ones walking around the mall with us doesn't elude me.

Alec insisted on ditching the stroller when Lauren was 2 1/2. I fought him because I thought a half mile between the train station and daycare was too far - and it was at first. But it made our trips to and from much easier because it meant we could take stairs and ride escalators rather than having to find an elevator in a New York City subway station.

The result was a few months later, she wasn't phased by having to walk distances, and yes, we had to be on top of her not to pick things up. Our codeword for this behavior was "fragile". She knew that meant not to touch anything. I was constantly chastised for this, "She can't possibly know what that means!" by passersby, and to my glee she would say, "That means it breaks easily."