While on vacation in Gatlinburg one day I, like everyone else , took a long stroll down that extremely busy main strip.  My youngest daughter was in the stroller while my 2 year old was walking…on a leash.  Suddenly, I hear the loud conversation of a group of young people directly behind me.  Making comments like “free the leash kids” and “their your kids not your dog”.  Oh bad mistake on their part.  For I am not the person that is just going to ignore you.

I stopped abruptly in my tracks.  Almost causing them to run into me.  I turned around and asked them if they had any problems they would like to tell me about…their response “Oh no, no problem.”  Of course not.  Well I proceeded to tell them my reasons for leashing my daughter…and here they are:

• First, young children (toddlers in particular) are very unpredictable.  Which is why people say “it only takes a second” for them to take off or get into something.  Unfortunately for my children, I love them more than my own life itself.  So I am not taking the chance of any seconds going by where they could dart out into a street and get hit or lost.
• Second, I am not taking the chance of having my head turned and some Chester Molester has taking my child.  I don’t think so you sick bastards…they’re attached to me.

So I am not apologizing for going out of my way to protect my children from being in harms way.  That’s kind of what a parent is supposed to do.  If you disagree…great!  But don’t ask me to help out in the search party for your child one day or donate money for their medical bills after an accident.