Off Topic: Smoking around kids.....

[BarleyJack]

Sorry for this interruption in normal topical discusion, but I have to vent this. As a healthcare worker, it just disgusts me when parents bring in their children and they smell like an ashtray. The major complaint for these innocent victims of smoking abuse is most often a respiratory ailment. Everyone gripes about the cost of healthcare (myself included) but does nothing to avoid unneccessary healthcare. Wake up people....If you smoke in front of your child, you are harming them! Theres no ifs, ands or buts about it, you are abusing your child.

Another gripe is:

We have been seated in the smoking section at some restaurants...and parents and grandparents will bring in their children/grandchildren and sit them down in the smoking section. There should be a law against this...oh wait there is....child abuse laws. Restaurants and the parents/grandparents should be charged in these instances.

Agree or disagree if you want........you know I'm right.

If you are a parent who smokes, SMOKE OUTSIDE AWAY FROM THE KIDS AND DONT EXPOSE THEM TO OTHER PEOPLES SMOKE !!!

 

[Nick's Grandma]

As a smoker, trying to become an ex smoker, this bothers me. The thing that really gets under my skin is when they smoke in the cars with little ones.
I try not to smoke around cildren, anyone's children.

 

[ggeorgiagirl]

HEY Nick's GMOM...I smoked for 14 years! One day, I got a terrible stomach virus. I asked God to please help me feel better...and the little voice inside my head said "If you think this is bad, try Chemo." Well, I decided to quit BUT didn't tell anyone (in case I failed). MY HUSBAND DID NOT EVEN NOTICE FOR 2 WEEKS! I am NOT kidding! Friends didn't notice (except my smoking buddies...they noticed in the first 5 minutes). Try it...don't tell a soul...see how long it takes your loved ones to notice!

I didn't have kids at the time...but I never smoked in front of children! It is totally child abuse! When a child walks into a classroom and they have just gotten out of a smoky car...I penetrates the entire classroom! YUCK!

How about kids not wearing seat belts. That freaks me out! How can a parent NOT put a child in a safety seat! I see it every day in my community. Mostly, it is the uneducated, very young parents that do it! HOW SAD!!??!! Our hospital GIVES every parent a car seat! AND THEY STILL DO NOT DO IT!

GOOD LUCK!

 

[bumbershoot]

HEY Nick's GMOM...I smoked for 14 years! One day, I got a terrible stomach virus. I asked God to please help me feel better...and the little voice inside my head said "If you think this is bad, try Chemo." Well, I decided to quit BUT didn't tell anyone (in case I failed). MY HUSBAND DID NOT EVEN NOTICE FOR 2 WEEKS! I am NOT kidding! Friends didn't notice (except my smoking buddies...they noticed in the first 5 minutes). Try it...don't tell a soul...see how long it takes your loved ones to notice!

Wow. My mom had a similar thing happen. She knew she wanted to stop, but just couldn't get it to "stick" (she was a cigarette addict from her very first cigarette at 15 years old). One night she woke up in an asthma attack (was asthmatic from birth), an attack so bad she truly thought she wasn't going to make it. While lying in bed, trying to control her lungs, she realized that if she died, my brother and I would go to our dad, and he was NOT a person who was a good parent at that time. The thought horrified her so much that when she came out of the asthma attack, she quit cold turkey, and never picked up a cigarette again.


However, that was when she was 35, and I was 10 already. My dad smoked until he was 55 and had a heart attack. My stepmom still smokes, and she ia NICU nurse. Mom hadn't smoked in the house for about 2 years, but it took dad and stepmom much longer...then they would stand inside the house with their arm extended out the window...seemed to think that meant there was some barrier to the smoke. I remember well a road trip with them, I was sitting in the back, stepmom had her arm out the window, flicked her cigarette, and it flew back into the back window right onto my face.

Anyway, my point is, I had several years of second hand smoke, and even third hand smoke (the smoke on their clothes...I have a friend who worked for Intel putting chips together, and they had severe restrictions on smokers, b/c the third hand smoke could mess up a computer chip! ).

And I'm sitting here, with my lungs STILL having problems from a headcold turned something else...DS and DH are fine, even though they had the same sickness as I did, but my lungs are so damaged from those early years that I can't kick it.

(for anyone interested in quitting...the step my mom took a year or two BEFORE her realization that she had to quit, was to do a deep-cleaning of the house, and to repaint the interior walls. When she took all the furniture away, including paintings and mirrors, she was utterly disgusted at the color difference, and the soot, above her usual smoking spots. Doing that kept her from smoking in the house after that, and she restricted her friends from smoking too...and they are diehard smokers, they STILL smoke like chimneys inside their house...their daughter won't stay there anymore since she had triplets (27 week gestation)...can't do that to their lungs. anyway, seeing the soot on the walls helped my mom.)

 

[mom2aredhead]

Another gripe is:

We have been seated in the smoking section at some restaurants...and parents and grandparents will bring in their children/grandchildren and sit them down in the smoking section. There should be a law against this...oh wait there is....child abuse laws. Restaurants and the parents/grandparents should be charged in these instances.

Agree or disagree if you want........you know I'm right.


I can't believe there are still smoking sections in restaurants. I guess we're spoiled here in NY and NJ. I am an ex-smoker - quit the second I found out I was pregnant and never went back - it's been almost 5 years. Frankly I can't even remember being a smoker, and have no desire to go back. When I smell someone that just smoked, I can't believe I walked around smelling like that!

I don't know why I keep messing up the quote thing today - sorry!

 

[waltskids]

Thank goodness NJ is smoke free in restaurants!
I forgot that some states still are behind when it comes to the health of it's citizens.
Children should not be subjected to smoke from anyone, including parents, it's such a shame

 

[TheDizMom]

Minnesota too !!! No smoking in public places . I have a child with asthma so I hated having to be anywhere near a smoker, although I have every symptom of an asthmatic I am not technically, but it really bothers me too. When Minnesota finally passed this law, which just went into effect, I was thrilled. All the restaurants near other states are complaining that their customers are going to go to the other states because they can't smoke here. I am sorry but if you have to smoke that badly that you need to go out of state in order to smoke while you eat, you have got a serious problem. How do you taste anything you're eating with a cigarette in your mouth at the same time anyway .

 

[lighttech]

Kudos to any of you trying to quit. Its a tough journey, but you'll be so glad you did. I swore I would never smoke, but I started in college (wasn't dealing too well w/ stress) and got hooked immediately. I went from never having a cigarette to smoking 2 packs a day over the course of 2 semesters. I obviously have an addictive personality !

I quit when I left school, had a few relapses, but have been w/o a cig for about 7 years. Honestly, I still crave them every now and then, and I get SO mad at myself for every having done something so stupid that it effects me 11 years later.

But, even when I was smoking, I tried to be concious of those around me. I didn't smoke while others were eating, even in the smoking section, I NEVER smoked around kids, and I didn't smoke in my dorm or college aparment... even though my roommate did.

I remember being in college and seeing one of the pregnant grad students smoking, and just being incensed! I felt so sad for that unborn baby. It was one of the things that made me decide to quit.

Now, I try not to impose my beliefs on anyone, but I do wish that smokers I encounter now had the respect for my desire to NOT smoke that I had for non-smokers when I was puffin' away my life. Some do, but a lot do not. And, I get especially upset when my DS 2.5 gets in harms way. I'll often get up and leave if I feel he's getting secondhand.

 

[ty&brenmom]

Alaska is smoke free in public places
I smoked for many years until I was pregnant with my second son, and I to can't believe that I walked around smelling the way I did.
My biggest issue with smokers are the ones that smoke with their kids in the backseat, where do they think the smoke is going to go????

 

[poohfriend77]

Illinois goes smoke-free in public starting Jan. 1!!! My town already is, but I'm looking forward to a state-wide ban.

I actually got into a fight with my cousin over this. Her family came to visit when my DD was four days old (I had a touch of the baby blues anyway, and was NOT up to entertaining ). Anyway, they drove 90 minutes to get to my house, she came in to use the bathroom, then went outside to smoke. When she came back in, I refused to let her hold the baby because she smelled like an ashtray! I was sitting across the room and it was making me sick, so there was no way I was going to let her smush my brand-new baby's face into her smelly shirt. She was definitely NOT happy with me. But, hey, if third-hand smoke is bad for computer chips, it has to be bad for humans, right? Hmmm... come to think of it, she didn't come visit when my second DD was born.

 

[phillmolly]

Oh I just hate to see parents smoking around their children! I actually got into a shouting match with somebody once about it! I was going into a grocery store and a mom (very young, probally to young to buy ciggerates) and her mom were lighting up right in front of the baby, maybe nine months old. I think what really got me is the fact that the had just walked out the door and already had the cancer sticks in their mouths. And because it was windy they were using the baby as wind shield to light up. I was so angry I couldn't not say anything. I think I said something like "way to give the kid asthma" or something along those lines. And then of course they told me to MYOB and I said what about your babys business, whos watching out for him? It just went on from there. Aslo I had cancer, Hodgkins Disease, and when I was going for Chemo there was women there who had lung cancer and was on oxygen, she would take her oxygen off and go have a ciggie. I guess she figured she was close to the end so why not. I hate smoking! I keep waiting for MI to pass a non-smoking law, there are a lot of resturants I won't go to because the "smoking" section is so huge. Its just such a nasty habbit. I really am very anti smoking! Both my grandfathers died from smoking and my mom and MIL are well on their way. My MIL has congsetive heart failuer and she STILL smokes. She lives with me also and I make her go all the way outside, the very end of the deck. I don't care what the weather is like, you are not smoking right outside my back door! In the summer when we have the windows open sometimes the smoke will come in the windows and I tell her she has to go somewhere else to smoke. My husband will lock the door when he knows she is out there smoking, lol. Okay, thats enough of my ranting! Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[MSSANDRA]

I pick up my 15 yr old DS from school each day. There is a parent that parks beside me most days that has a 9th grade girl at the school as well. Well every day the lady has a ciggerate lit and waiting for the child to grab as soon as she gets into the car. . The entire school campus is smoke free!!!

My MIL& FIL both wonderful but uneducated people started smoking as teens and were heavy smokers when I joined the family. had smoked around their children and one grandchild. FF to DS being born and I of course said NO WAY. Turns out premature DS was too sensitive to be in their home with the 3rd hand smoke. They loved DS more than smoking and both quit cold turkey!! It took a log time for the house to start to air out and years for the smell to be completly gone!!!!!!

 

[kldmom2000]

I grew up in a house where both my parents were heavy smokers I detested smelling that way especially when I got to high school.....there was no way to avoid it in the house. My brother and I constantly had bronchitis, pneumonia, etc.... and the cough was always horrendous and painful Once when I had pneumonia @ age 19, I went to my MD. Between the way my hair/clothes smelled and the way my lungs sounded, she assumed I smoked. I told her I didn't and she said that I can thank second-hand smoke for making me sick so often.....

I got married @ 21 and finally had a smoke-free environment. I've not had pneumonia or bronchitis ONCE since being on my own (that was 13 yrs ago)....

Both my parents had heart attacks right around age 50 It took Dad a few more years after that to quit smoking, but mom is still a heavy smoker She is forbidden to smoke in our home or around our girls. My dad's sister just died in August at age 51 from a 2 yr battle with lung cancer due to smoking. Mom is still smoking........

 

[my2boyzrock]

My step dad has tried quitting several times. He always went outside to smoke & still does even though there aren't any kids around. My mom won't let him smoke in the house or the car.
The absolute WORSE thing to see though is a pregnant woman smoking! I lost a high school friend over this. Another friend and I (both of us were childless at the time even) went to her baby shower (about 10 years ago) and when we went to go say good bye to her we found her on the deck w/ a cigarette in hand! We were both disgusted and she basically said her body, her baby. That was the last time we spoke as friends. Sad, but I can't be around someone like that who has no regard for their unborn child. I know cigarettes are a drug and obviously they are powerful, but can't u give them up for 9 months?

 

[DisneyPhD]

. I keep waiting for MI to pass a non-smoking law, there are a lot of resturants I won't go to because the "smoking" section is so huge.

I can not wait for MI to pass one. It is only a mater of time, so many other states are. Many restaurants who were smoking have gone none smoking and I love that.

OP I could not agree more.

I hated it when I worked in day care (preschool teacher) and so many kids came in smelling like smoke.

I have 2 sister in laws who have terrible asthma problems. Both had mothers who where heavy smokers growing up. It is so sad.

 

[badblackpug]

If you are a parent who smokes, SMOKE OUTSIDE AWAY FROM THE KIDS AND DONT EXPOSE THEM TO OTHER PEOPLES SMOKE !!!

About this. This is actually pointless. If ou have a child with asthma or any respiratory issues you should not smoke AT ALL. The smoke and the particulates from the cigarettes stick in your clothing and hair and your children still breath them in every time you touch, hold, or are near them.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Don't even get me started about pregnant women smoking.............

Or people around pregnant women smoking..............

 

[eh24fan]

I had it out with my ex and his new gf, now wife over this exact thing. I smoked for about 2 years, when I got pregnant I quit cold turkey the day I found out. I NEVER smoked around kids or other people that didn't smoke. so anyway, fast forward 4 1/2 years later, ex and I split up, his gf smokes and he starts again. My kid kept coming home smelling like he smoked a pack himself. After going to the ENT because of his chronically swollen tonsils, the ENT gave me a note that basically said "No smoking" around my son. We battled...the stupid g/f thought it was ok to smoke in her bedroom as long as the door was closed or in the car as long as the window was open. Nope...not gonna happen. I told my ex either she stops smoking around our son or I will attempt to get the court to order it. She no longer smokes around him. If they have to take 2 cars for some reason, she will MAKE my son ride in another car just so she can smoke. It makes me ill that someone has such little respect for a child's lungs.

 

[kribit]

I believe CA passed a law or is currently passing a law that bans all smoking from public housing (like apartment complexes/condos/townhouses). CA residents can correct me if I'm wrong. I also think they are thinking of passing a law to fine a person for smoking in a car with a child under 12.

I agree with both laws.

 

[ekball]

I agree!

And so funny that you are posting this today as just yesterday morning I was in the pedi office with DD (well child visit) when a young mom came walking in with her new baby (or very very young baby) REEKING of smoke. All I could think was "oh you poor, poor baby". It was awful.