‘People judge me for having my son on a leash but I need to keep him safe’

“I’ve come home crying before from the cruel comments,” the mum reveals.

Rachel Butcher’s son is fast.

We all know kids like this. Many of us have raised kids like this and wondered, how can such tiny legs generate so much speed?

Some of us train our kids to sit in prams, others trap them in shopping trolley when getting the groceries, others have given up going out at all hoping the phase will pass one day.

Rachel opted for a leash, and while it’s a lifesaver for her, she’s copped plenty of criticism.

“My child runs faster than me,” she posted on Facebook. Due to scar tissue from my hysterectomy, I have trouble running sometimes to keep up with him.

“Let it also be known, I religiously ran races and ran every day before my surgery, so it’s not due to laziness,” she added.

The mum-of-one doesn’t have any other children to compare her son to, but she suspects he’s faster than the average two-year-old, but because he was adopted and she knows little about his birth parents, Rachel isn’t sure it’s genetic or something else.  

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Rachel has come home crying from the cruel comments people make about her son on his leash. Photo: Facebook

Mum slammed for using leash on son

“Aside from his already rough beginning of medicine exposure, we know little to nothing about his biological family and their genetics.

“So he could be more hyper just from experiences that I don’t know of.”

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Rachel is comfortable with her choice because she knows that it keeps her son safe when they’re out in public. But that doesn’t stop strangers from making judgemental comments.

“I’ve come home crying because I’ve left stores before finishing shopping when he’s having a meltdown,” she said.

“I also get snide comments and nasty looks now and then too."

Rachel and her husband adopted their little boy. Photo: Facebook

“But today, today was worse. We went to Target and he wore his backpack and he did amazing.

“He was happy, laughing, smiling, and yes, running, but he was close to me. My son is nearly three now and still runs like full out sprints.

“He still attends OT, PT, and speech therapy, and we’re working through his developmental delays and he is thriving.

Originally published as ‘People judge me for having my son on a leash but I need to keep him safe’