Torture

I hate children.
Children are greedy, obnoxious little jerks who haven't grasped the concept that the world does not revolve around them. They are loud, abrasive, and everywhere as if they spawn via abiogenesis from manure.
When I went to university, I thought there was some security that I'd never see a child on campus; however, I am regularly wakened on Saturday mornings by the sound of children screaming in the daycare across from my residence, probably because someone stopped listening to them for two seconds.
Children are the closest the human race will ever come to devolving into ticks.
The worst part is that all of us were children once. So many people, including myself, have, at many times, thought that they were different, they were an anomaly, they were a 'good' child; however, that is a load of horseshit. At one point, every one of us was a little bastard making life frustrating for everyone around us.
I get sad when I see a mother walking down the street with her children, clearly pained by the misery these vermin have brought upon them, and the children just smile as if its rainbows thats filling their diapers. They are clearly making the person who gave them life an agonizing trial, and they cannot empathize at all with their plight. Goddammit, kids suck.

That being said, I take issue with how I saw one parent deal with their problem.
I was walking back through the Academic Quadrangle in SFU last Friday after seeing my girlfriend before she left for the weekend. I was in a good mood as my morning had been child free up until that point. However, after rounding a corner, I saw a stressed mother and a tiny, scoundrel companion beside her. Immediately, my thought was "you poor woman. I can only imagine what you've been through" as the child ran through her legs.
Thats when I saw the leash.
The child was on a leash. A harness practically indecipherable from a dogs leash and the mother was pulling this kid along as she walked. For a second, I just stopped, stared, and considered what I had just witnessed.

To reiterate the first section of this post, I still believe children are little Satan-spawns. The role of parenting plays an interesting part in how this problem is addressed. Even the most unruly of children can be put in their place by a parents iron will and that is a truly noble thing. What I take serious issue with is the neglectful degradation of children by putting them on a leash as this does two things:
Firstly, it makes the child get their way. Leashing a child is a parent subconsciously saying to the world "fuck it. I suck at disciplining this child so I'll restrain them on a rope" and, to me, that is pathetic.
The second thing putting a child on a leash does is potentially do major psychological damage to someone at a very early age. As much as I despise the ground a child walks on, I don't want to hurt them. I would never demean a child because its cruel and humiliating. By putting a child on a leash, a parent is essentially saying "my child is a dog and therefore I will treat them like one" which is terrifying notion. Children, as bad as they may be, are very impressionable and their development is what determines what kind of people they will be. If they grow up being treated like dirt, what will their self esteem be like when they're 13, 18, or 30?

Though my despise for children truly knows no bounds, I have taken something rather invaluable away from this experience. We were all little juveniles at one point or another, but we became adults. As much as Peter Pan would have you believe otherwise, we all eventually grow up and do cool things with our lives. Thankfully, my parents dealt with my with the utmost finesse and I hardly feel insecure with who I am. After all, I'm glad I don't have to look back and say "I was that kid on the leash".