In the movie Mommy Dearest, portraying the childhood of Christina Crawford living with her adopted mother Joan Crawford, what was her son wearing and what was it for? It was a harness type thing that he always wore, and at bed time it held him down to the bed. Was it a common 'safety measure' for adventurous children back in those days, or was it just more of the mental insanity that was Joan Crawford?

It was Joan Crawford's overly nutsy idea that poor Christopher be confined to bed at night. No it was not a common safety measure to be used like that. It was a child's harness used for when the child was outside the home to ensure they did not run off or get lost. She just happily misused this item.

When my son was little he was not a hand holder type kid. I had to use one of these harnesss on him as the Adam Walsh incident had just happened in South Florida and I did not want him snatched in a store from me.

Ahh thank you. I did use the harness with my duaghter when she was little and we were in crowded places. I just couldn't understand why the boy was tied down to the bed as well. It seemed cruel!

I love the movie, for movies sake, but the woman really makes me mad.

Joan Crawford was an extremely over controlling individual who had to be obeyed or else. I've read several books about her, not just Christina's book, and she was a real nasty individual. I guess she must have been an undiagnosed bipolar to act like she did in a lot of different instances. Everything her way - or else! She spent money without abandon and henpecked her nice husbands. You need to read a book about her to really understand her twisted mind.

Her own mother was also very abusive, very lazy and very slobby, which is what caused joan to be so neurotic, was her mother was VERY un neurotic (to the point of that show 'how dirty is your house'

ERR How CLEAN is your house

There were several types of harnesses and reasons for using them, like Christopher's. There was a baby harness sold way back called, "Sleep Safe". It was used to make sure small children, mostly babies would not fall out of a bed. A crib was not always used or handy, so the harness would let mom have some peace of mind. There were also harnesses for children, more like the one Christopher wore, to keep a child in the pram or stroller. It would keep the baby from falling out, or getting up and out. These same type, and harnesses like it are still used to keep babies and children from wandering to far while walking. When I was young I had one called, a Zip A Babe harness. So named for the zipper in the back of the harness. I know some people and institutions that have also used these types of harness to help keep challenged children, who get out of bed in there beds. Sometimes sleepwalking children would be put in a bed harness. In the past, they have been very much misused, and sometime misunderstood.