I can't tell you how many times I have had little kids run in front of me while I'm walking, worse when I have my hands full - typically in a store and since children tend not to look before running and when they hit something they bounce off and keep running (or fall over and start wailing). I don't think it's so much of leashing the kid as much as putting a little fear in them to behave properly and frankly I find it irritating to have little kids running around screaming like it's play time while in a store. So if a parent is at their wits end trying to keep they child in line I'm all for leashes if that is what it takes.
Indeed.
For some reason my 3 brothers and I never screamed in a public place, never threw hissy fits, and watched where we were going. If we didnt we apologized to the folks we got in the way of.
Maybe its because if we didnt we would get smacked on the ass pretty hard.