ˈlē- noun plural
1. : strings by which children are sometimes supported when beginning to walk
2. : a state of dependence or tutelage : guidance
leading strings had been so willingly accepted that they were scarcely felt — E.M.Forster
— usually used in the phrase in leading strings
no longer in leading strings to his wife or his wife's father — Francis Hackett
passed his whole adolescence in his mother's leading strings — Van Wyck Brooks