Some people are just stupid!
Posted
April 2, 2008 at
12:04 pm by
Allison J
I, like many of my friends, am a smoker. I know, I know – I should quit (back off!). I choose to smoke, as is my choice. And while I am a girl of few rules, there are four that I live by:
1. When there are kids in the car – NO SMOKING
2. When there are kids in the house – NO SMOKING
3. When I am near my pregnant sister – NO SMOKING
4. And when I am in the vicinity of children – NO SMOKING
If I happened to be outside smoking and I see someone approaching – especially if that someone is a child — I quickly move, attempt to blow the smoke as far away from them as possible, or hold my breath until they pass.
So, the next time I see someone smoking with a mini-van full of children, or smoking while pushing their child in a stroller and holding another kid’s hand, smoking while holding a child, or smoking while — gasp — pregnant, would it be impolite of me slap them upside the head?
Tags: child-abuse, child-endangerment, Health, second-hand-smoke, smoking, smoking-and-children, smoking-and-pregnant, smoking-around-children |
6 Responses to “Some people are just stupid!”
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1. Kristy said:
April 2, 2008 @ 12:38 pm
It makes me so crazy when I see parents pushing their tiny toddlers in the baby swings at the park while smoking. So unacceptable to smoke all over your own and other people’s kids!
2. Rita said:
April 2, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
As an ex-smoker, married to an ex-smoker, I can say that my biggest fears with the playground smoking are burns. Cigarettes held casually are just about exactly kid face level. It is scary.
I did smoke through my first pregnancy. I know, it’s terrible. I cut down, but I can’t say that I quit and I will forever feel guilty for that. I always figured that when I got pregnant, I’d have some sort of aversion towards smoking, that I’d feel different and I’d quit. I didn’t have any morning sickness with that pregnancy and there were two other pregnant women at work who smoked, so I was a sheep and basically just too selfish to quit. I really regret that, but am thankful that he was born full term and full size (8lbs 6 oz) and all went well.
I quit before his third birthday, because see then he could TALK and what he said was, “Hey mom, when I grow up, I can smoke too!” We only smoked outside and never in the car, but that was it, it was obvious to us then that our smoking had a direct impact on him.
But, I talk with my friends and being children of the 70’s, our family trips were all in station wagons with the windows rolled up tight, the freon a/c pumping away and both parents chain smoking. My parents smoked in the house. They smoked at the dinner table. My mom talked about feeding me a bottle with one hand and holding a cigarette with the other. It was one of my chores as a child to dump their ashtrays. I had to poke around to make sure there were no hot embers before tossing them in the trash.
Those things are totally unthinkable now, thank God. So, we are making progress. I think that parents who smoke are in the minority. Are they? Around here if someone lights a cigarette it’s reacted to almost as if that person has taken a dump right on a baby, it’s so unpopular. But, I don’t know if that’s a universal parent thing or if it’s just here.
3. Tracy said:
April 2, 2008 @ 2:12 pm
I’m with you.
As a secret smoker who loves a good puff and a tall glass of soda (or wine), I would never ever smoke in front of my daughter. NO WAY! I want to smack those who do
4. Friend said:
May 4, 2008 @ 12:33 pm
I too smoked, but the second I found out I was pregnant…I quit, cold turkey. It wasn’t even hard. I chose a healthy baby over smoking and it was a no brainer….
I grew up with a smoking Mom….endured the smoky car rides….it is socially unacceptable to smoke anymore, and I for one am glad about that.
5. Queen Bee said:
May 4, 2008 @ 11:34 pm
I grew up with two parents who smoked in an extended family that also smoked. I was a very asthmatic child and guess what, I moved away from home and suddenly all those issues cleared away. I grew out of the asthma and my allergies nose dived. It was a big wake up call for me, to see hard proof of what second hand smoke was doing to my body. It took terminal cancer to make my mother quit and my father still smokes socially to this day.
6. friend said:
May 5, 2008 @ 9:46 am
I think for some people, unfortunately, it does take a diagnosis to make them stop. Or some other huge thing, like pregnancy.
I have heard that nicotine is as hard to kick as herion…