<p>^^former harness user here, too. Used to fly solo, with infant in arms, diaper bag and the two-year-old trying to pull away. Leash/harness made the most sense to me, but oh what people did say!! I wish parents would use them at parades, crowds, ballgames or wherever, until all are safely re-seated.</p>
<p>Maybe toddler leash/harnesses will come into standard use. I only used mine in airports or crowds, but people seemed to think I “walked my kid” like a dog. They don’t know. In fact, I just kept the straps with my suitcases. </p>
<p>Today’s carseats would have looked odd and restrictive to drivers in the l950’s, but now they’re standard. </p>
<p>I think my trips were easier than the one described, as I was a sole adult trying to watch 2 kids on a domestic flight. That family had 2 parents, grandparents (in who knows what shape or state of excitement), and the toddler. All were emigrating so had to get each person through customs, immigration and then the plane security post-911. It’s not surprising they were delayed and had to run to make the plane in time. Language barriers. Sadly they got separated as they ran towards the plane. </p>
<p>No ticketed seat for the toddler who was too young to require one. </p>
<p>In terms of airline accountability and keeping track of passengers, he didn’t even have the status of “passenger.” His airline status resembles that of a carried-on teddy-bear. But don’t they say, “Infant” anywhere on the ticketing system and know whether “hand-held” or “carry-on” people had boarded? What happens in an emergency, I wonder…? </p>
<p>GREAT job by Canadian Air to rescue the little one.</p>
<p>Not a regular leash user here, but once it turned into “The funny family story”.</p>
<p>DD was 20 months, into that whole independent thing. I was meeting DH in London where he’d gone earlier for a conference. Decided to leash (harness type, not wrist) DD due to diaper bag, carseat, and carry on. So she had a massive poop bomb just before we had to get onboard. Cleaned her up in the bathroom, but then really needed to RUN to gate. And I am not so calm about being late in the best of times. And for some reason she decided she really wanted to be carried. I couldn’t do it; hands full. I couldn’t get her to agree to hurry. So I just dragged her with the leash. She threw herself down, and all I said was get up or be dragged. Dragged her 10 steps and got some control of myself so asked her calmly-er if she could please run for me. And she did. I got some hellish looks tho’… but no one offered to carry anything; May have happened to fast although it seemed slow at the time. … Did Imention that I was 5 mo. pregnant at the time? Probably they all thought I was a fat housewife with no control.</p>
<p>My parents are fine caring people, but they once left my youngest brother at a rest stop. He wasn’t a toddler, but he wasn’t very old either - 6 or 7 I think.</p>
<p>Friends of ours with three kids once had two cars at church and left the youngest one behind afterwards - both thought she was definitely with the other parent in the other car. She was 4 or 5, and they figured it out quickly and came back to pick her up… But they have never lived it down.</p>
<p>Leash and harness are a good idea when traveling with more than one small one, but I didn’t discover that idea until too late. While traveling with a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old, I was pulled over after going through airport security and asked to unload all my bags, again. (Turns out the security guy was training someone new and wanted to make the point that no one was above suspicion.) While occupied with unloading a backpack, the 2 yr. old got her hand sucked into a conveyor belt! Then, on the ambulance ride to the hospital, while I was trying to comfort a screaming toddler, the 4 yr old decided to investigate the needle disposal box in the ambulance!!</p>
<p>I still have nightmares. </p>
<p>As for the story in question here, this family has my sympathies. They were emigrating, about to miss a plane due to luggage loading/unloading, too many adults with no individual assigned. It is easy to say it could never happen to me, and probably it wouldn’t have because I would have had the toddler with me on the plane, but then again, when on a visit to a botanical garden with a large group of gabby relatives, I lost track of my son (about 7/8) as we were leaving. He had been lollygagging in the indoor rain forest, a few yards behind us, and the security guard locked the door behind us as we left, leaving Junior Mir. Explorer to check out the rainforest on his own. We figured out what happened less than 15 minutes later; he didn’t seem to mind a great deal, but I felt like Lousy Mom.</p>
<p>When my kids (two of them) were little and we’d go to the zoo or Disneyland or wherever, we’d have Dad in the lead, then the kids. But I always brought up the rear to make sure everyone stayed together and no one got snatched by a bad guy. Call me paranoid, but they never “went missing.”</p>
<p>A good friend of mine left her 6-year-old in the church parking lot after picking up another kid. Oops.</p>
<p>Leaving someone is such a fear of mine! We have a large family and several drivers, so it is pretty complicated and very easy to make a mistake. I agree with Emeraldkity that the problem is no one knew who was responsible - which is easy to goof up in a large group. Over the years, we’ve worked out that when there are more than one of us driving, all drivers meet before anyone leaves and each says, “I’ve got blank, blank and blank,” naming the children who are traveling with them. Only when all drivers know who is supposed to be in which car does anyone leave. And every single time our van pulls out of the driveway, we “sound off.” Each child calls his name, starting with the oldest and going down to the youngest in order. If someone is elsewhere, the driver says, “Such and such is with Grandma” or whatever when it’s time for their name. It’s the best we could figure out to make sure that doesn’t happen. We’ve had some close calls, but no one’s been left yet, thankfully.</p>
<p>My sister, one of four kids, got left at a rest stop, too, once. We joke about it now. </p>
<p>I did find a 2 year old by herself at a McDonalds in one of those ball pits. I had seen her earlier with her family and it looked like they had stopped there on the way from from the hospital with a new baby. The employees called the police. By the time the police got there, the parents were just pulling back into the parking lot. I think they let them off the hook.</p>
<p>Several years ago, my husband’s grandmother was left sitting on a park bench while on vacation with her daughters (all seven of them). She was around 70 years old then, and she was as quiet as her daughters were LOUD. There she sat, pocketbook on her lap, patiently waiting for one of them to notice that they’d left her behind. After about an hour, they starting wondering where their mom was. Finally, they realized they’d all left without her. They piled into their cars to go back and search for her. She wasn’t the least bit worried, thankfully, and always enjoyed retelling the story.</p>