Stop Smoking Around Your Kids (You Selfish Asshole)

Posted on 06 27, 2006 under The Manual by foodad |

To the smoker:

I see you everyday, pushing a stroller with one hand, a lit butt in the other.  You are outside. The smoke from your cancer stick is flowing around you and your kid.  I know it is bothering her because in the two brief seconds that I encountered you, it really bothered me.  How often do you do this? Are you doing it at home? Are you doing it in the car? Are you at least opening the bloody windows? If not then you might as well be jamming a cigarette in her mouth and let her smoke along with you.


You had a choice. You chose to live a life of setting your hands and face on fire, breathing in nicotine laced, cancer causing carcinogens. You became addicted and you think you cannot quit, or maybe you do not want to quit.  Listen to me now.  You have a kid and it is no longer just about you and what you want.  Your daughter did not get a chance to choose whether or not she is breathing in garbage air whenever your selfish ass needs a nicotine fix. Not only are you killing yourself. You are killing your family, you are killing me and you are setting a terrible example.

Smoking is affecting her breathing. It is giving her headaches. It is making her smell really bad. How do I know? I am also the child of a smoker.
 

Maybe your daughter has asked you to quit.  I know what that is like.  My mother smokes. She used to yell at me if I asked her to stop and she whooped my ass good when I buried her cigarettes in the back yard.  Since you have read this far, I am going to tell you what your kid wants to say to you- Adult to Adult.

Stop smoking.  It is not all about you, you selfish asshole.

If that’s not enough, here are some stories written by kids with selfish son of a bitch parents like you.  Thanks for being there for the kids, Kids Involuntarily Inhaling Secondhand Smoke - www.kiiss.org/stories/read.html

 

 

 

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Viewing 32 Comments

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    Its child abuse. Nothing less.

    And those stories from the link are heartbreaking.
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    I know, I know, I am need to quit. The baby is due 9/10 and I have set the final date for 9/1. I haven\'t smoked in our new house and haven\'t smoked anywhere but the street or work since we found out we were pregnant. Like you I was the child of smokers(3 packs a day each). I lost my father to smoking but it was the thought of having a son that made my mind up. I won\'t give him the oppotunity that my parents gave me, leaving stogies out for a curious thirteen year old who wanted to \"look cool.\" I won\'t miss the nicotine though, the tough part is the habit of 20 years. Wish me luck, I\'ll need it.
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    Smoking inside, in a car or any closed space, even outside while holding a baby would be irresponsible, but the author is jumping to all of those conclusions to pursue some blanket jihad against smokers.

    If it\'s merely a matter of giving the impression to your child that smoking is OK, well -- it is, as with anything, in moderation. The registration for this site asks about your favorite beer! Is it OK to drink in front of your kid?

    The title brands the stroller-pushing dad as a \"selfish asshole.\" What about moms who will not breast-feed their kids, or schedule cosmetic c-sections? Or parents who drop their kids in day-care at a young age? Or divorce? Or cry-it-out?
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    Quinn, welcome to the site, but look at the title of the piece. It isn\'t about smokers in general. It is about smoking in front of your kids.

    As for in moderation I couldn\'t disagree with you more. Drinking beer and smoking are not even in the same league. Smoking in moderation is NOT good.
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    Yes, a stroller pushing dad is a \"selfish asshole\" because he\'s putting his own \"fix\" ahead of his child\'s health.

    As for not breast feeding a baby, some babies just simply can\'t between allergies and anatomy, so I\'m not even going there.

    Parents dropping their kids off at day care at young ages is not selfish but often more out of a financial need to meet the bills and put food on the table or pay for the education that will help their children grow up to understand why the shouldn\'t smoke.

    Divorce.........a spouse leaving due to abuse or neglect is far from selfish, more like selfless.

    I too am the child of a 30+ year smoking parent, therefore I understand addiction. What I don\'t understand is not having at least the desire to quit out of respect for oneself and one\'s family.
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    QuinnFagizu,

    Welcome to noodad.com. Thanks for joining the site. I am happy to see you here.


    Let\'s cut to the chase. There is a huge difference between drinking beer and smoking. If I drink a beer, no matter how close I stand to you, you will not become intoxicated. Smoking is thought of as an individual activity, but it is not. You are sharing that smoke with the community. You are polluting the air that I ALSO need to breathe. You are standing in the doorway that I ALSO NEED TO ENTER. Smoke stays in doorways. It collects under the roof of that open air train stop. You are oblivious to this because you just had the cigarette, but people like me who do not indulge in cancer sticks are breathing this stuff and we DID NOT CHOOSE TO DO SO. Your moderation argument is faulty. Try comparing apples to apples next time. If you are thinking that a person who drinks beer could harm another person who is not drinking, that is true and is another form of abuse, however the actual act of drinking beer did not cause the harm.

    I fail to see how any of the list of things that you mentioned after your flimsy retort compares to smoking, which effectively slowly kills everyone around (and including) the user.
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    Is the article about smoking \"in front of\" your kids, or smoking in an enclosed space such that your kid suffocates?

    Harry, there are certainly exceptions to every rule. Ideally, I\'m sure all parents would want to breast feed and raise their kids themselves instead of shipping them off to a petting zoo run by chain-smoking smeth addicts so that they can afford a decent public education at the Indoctrination Center.

    I don\'t have the least desire to quit smoking because I enjoy smoking. I also shoot skeet now and then, but I don\'t toss babies into my line of fire and watch the infantestines fly.
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    A dog in the house could eat your child.

    Idling your car while loading your kids in it is exposing them to fumes many times worse than second-hand smoke.

    Some scientists consider UV radiation bad to ANY degree. Would you endanger your child by exposing any part of them to the evil sun?

    Seriously, though, I applaud anyone trying to make the world a better place for kids, and smoking in an enclosed space is at best not good for a child, but the hyperbole here does a disservice to a the message, as evidenced by my personal outrage at being branded a selfish asshole for indulging in something that, as I practice it, is [i]not[/i] harmful to my child.
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    you are fooling yourself Quinn. I don\'t deny you enjoy smoking. But after you light up, do you then remove all your clothing, dry clean them, and then run an air purifier for a few hours?

    For us non-smokers, we aren\'t immune to the stench like you may be. Now imagine a helpless baby who can\'t walk out of the room?

    Not to mention the example you are setting for your kids. Good luck with the skeet too.
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    What\'s the difference?

    Do you smoke around your kid? Did they breathe in the smoke? Then you suck.

    I do support a larger idea of banning smoking, but since I am not a legislator, I am using my soapbox, noodad.com, to speak for kids who cannot speak for themselves-- or are afraid of the response they will get from their asshole smoker parents.
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    I put sunscreen on my kids everytime they step outside.


    They do not make smokescreen.
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    Wingnut, good for you for realizing what may be good for you isnt necessarily good for your kid. I applaud your efforts to quit and wish you luck.
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    I am glad to hear you want to quit. I wish you the best of luck in your detox efforts!!! \"We\'re Here For Ya Man!\"
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    Wait a second -- now I\'m an asshole if I smoke /anywhere/ and neglect to change my clothes and dry-clean them? I assume that would also apply to any kind of environmental contaminants that may be clinging to my clothing.

    I agree that smoking with your child in closed quarters is not good for him. I feel the same about spray-painting, working on your car, or anything else that causes a direct environmentally adverse affect.

    The insinuation to which I am objecting is that smoking is worse than any of these other behaviors, even when done responsibly.
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    hahahahaha

    That\'s like saying

    Safe Suicide
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    The only way you can smoke responsibly is to do so in a remote area away from any other person (or with other smokers).

    Smokers offend so many people because the fumes from their habit are forced on those who choose not to smoke--like smoking in the doorway of a restaurant.

    The thing that bugs me about smokers is how they flick the cigarette wherever they please when they\'re done--especially out the car window. If cops would ticket these litterers every time they saw a still-smoking cigarette but skip across the pavement we could fund schools and other town projects from the fines. Maybe a smoker could answer the question: why do most of you think the world is your ashtray?
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    The thing that bugs me about those who eat fast food is how they toss their wrappers wherever they please when they\'re done--especially out the car window. If cops would ticket these litterers every time they saw a still-wet Coke cup skip across the pavement we could fund schools and other town projects from the fines. Maybe a fast food eater could answer the question: why do most of you think the world is your trashcan?
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    QuinnFazigu, at what point are you going to just admit that you are a religious smoker who is in outrageous depths of denial about the dangers that you are doing to yourself and EVERYONE around you. It WILL kill you and it will do harm to your family. What is so hard to grasp about that?! To compare throwing a cigarette butt out the window to throwing fast food wrappers out the window proves that you simply do not want to have a reasonable discussion about this subject.
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    I walked through downtown Boston\'s Copley Square area. I walked for 4 blocks. I could not walk 2 sidewalk segments without seeing a cigarette butt on the ground. I saw zero fast food wrappers. I am sorry that your town is full of fast food litter bug junkies.
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    Phillip Morris---the leading manufacturer of cigarrettes in the US has the following posted on their website:

    Secondhand Smoke

    Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke or ETS, is a combination of the smoke coming from the lit end of a cigarette plus the smoke exhaled by a person smoking.

    Public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke from cigarettes causes disease, including lung cancer and heart disease, in non-smoking adults, as well as causes conditions in children such as asthma, respiratory infections, cough, wheeze, otitis media (middle ear infection) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In addition, public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke can exacerbate adult asthma and cause eye, throat and nasal irritation.

    Philip Morris USA believes that the public should be guided by the conclusions of public health officials regarding the health effects of secondhand smoke in deciding whether to be in places where secondhand smoke is present, or if they are smokers, when and where to smoke around others. Particular care should be exercised where children are concerned, and adults should avoid smoking around them.

    We also believe that the conclusions of public health officials concerning environmental tobacco smoke are sufficient to warrant measures that regulate smoking in public places. We also believe that where smoking is permitted, the government should require the posting of warning notices that communicate public health officials\' conclusions that secondhand smoke causes disease in non-smokers.


    In another section titled Cigarette Smoking and Disease they write: Philip Morris USA (PM USA) agrees with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases in smokers. Smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, like lung cancer, than non-smokers. There is no safe cigarette.

    You can learn more at: www.phillipmorris.com
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    Personally, I roll my own cigarettes, so they are both free of nasty terrible additives (urine, rat poison, ammonia? whatever) of regular cigarettes, and composed entirely of easily biodegradable materials.

    Harry, if I felt my smoking harmed my daughters, I would stop. As it is, I never smoke inside, never smoke inside a car, and am very careful of my smoke when I do partake when around my daughter out of doors.

    Additionally, I am very conscious of non-smokers and do not linger around a doorway or other cramped space. We smoke around the corner of the office well away from foot traffic.

    I smoke maybe ten cigarettes a day, and cycle to and from work almost fifteen miles a day at least thrice a week. As for the latter, even I was surprised that my smoking didn\'t seem to cause me any problems with the exercise.

    I\'m not trying to say smoking is \"good\" and it is most likely less than neutral any way you look at it (*); I merely objected to the initial insinuation that a man is a bad parent simply because he smokes. (And that was the intended insinuation, evidenced by the discussion and in spite of the \"around your kids\" modifier in the title.)

    (* Although I have heard it helps protect against Alzheimer\'s, and my non-smoking uncle is suffering from early-onset, so maybe it\'s worth it for me.)
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    Quinn,

    First of all I\'ll bet ten Iron Eyes Codys to your one Marlboro Man that there is no way people throw as many cans, wrappers, cartons,or anything else out their car window as they do cigarette butts.

    I was hoping for some insight from a smoker as to why he or she doesn\'t think it is wrong to flick the butt on the ground instead of putting it in a trash can or the ashtray in your car. Instead you counter with an I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I argument about fast food wrappers.

    Try a little experiment this weekend. First, drive past a cop and flick a cigarette butt out the window and see what happens. Next, drive by the same cop and toss a soda cup from a fast food restaurant out the window and see what happens. Again, I\'d bet that absolutley nothing would happen with the cigarette butt toss; and you\'d be slapped with a nice fine for the soda cup. For some reason cigarette littering has become acceptable.

    Clearly from the description of your smoking habits you are the exception to the rule and a model member of the smoking public. You roll your own cigarettes, always smoke in an area where you are sure not to force second hand smoke on nonsmokers, and you likely stub out the butt and dispose of it in a suitable receptacle. That\'s great. I wish other smokers would follow your example.

    Finally, I agree with you that you are not a bad parent simply because you smoke; but your smoking could be cheating your children out of time with their father in the long run.
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