leading strings

noun[plural only]2

1. •
   Strings or straps by which a child is supported when learning to walk.
2. •
   (figurative) Guidance given during childhood.

   • In the hey-day of youth, and hardly out of the leading strings of a school, he formed an intention to nuptialize, and joined heart and hand with sweet Ann Hathaway at the age of eighteen and a half. — 1827