Parents who smoke should be found unfit to be parents...

First of all, let me admit that I am the child of smokers, and that I myself smoked for over 26 years, including the years when my daughter was growing up. I have since quit, and this has changed my perspective on the issue, as I no longer feel the need to defend my addiction. And that is what smoking is, an addiction. It is as strong, if not stronger than any coc aine or crystal meth addiction, and very hard to break. That said, let me move into the topic at hand...

Any parent SHOULD ask themselves which is more important, your 'habit' or your children. Let's first look at the health impact that face the children of smokers:

According to the Surgeon General:

•Because their bodies are developing, infants and young children are especially vulnerable to the poisons in secondhand smoke.

•Both babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant and babies who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth are more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than babies who are not exposed to cigarette smoke.

•Mothers who are exposed to secondhand smoke while pregnant are more likely to have lower birth weight babies, which makes babies weaker and increases the risk for many health problems.

•Babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than other babies, which increases the risk for many health problems.

•Secondhand smoke exposure causes acute lower respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and young children.

CDC: Children and Second Hand Smoke

Now this alone should be enough to get any parent to give up the butts, but let's look at some of the other effects that our smoking habit has on our children:

The children of cigarette smokers face an especially murky future, according to the University of Washington study published in the current issue of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

"If your parents were smokers it is a double whammy because you are more likely to use drugs in general and even more likely to smoke cigarettes," said Karl Hill, a research associate professor at the UW's Social Development Research Group and co-author of the new study. "There is something about tobacco that if parents smoke, their kids are more likely to smoke. It may be that parents who smoke might leave cigarettes around where their children can see and get to them. Parents may not leave marijuana and alcohol around in the same way."

medicalnewstoday.com

The article goes on to further state that:

"Children of smokers, heavy drinkers or marijuana users are more likely to have behavior problems when they are young, and consequently more likely to have drug problems themselves as they get old," said Jennifer Bailey, lead author of the study and a UW research scientist. "These children then grow up to be adult substance users, whose kids have behavior problems and the cycle is repeated."

This is not even considering the financial impact that such an addiction has, and once your children have grown up, they then get the increased chance of having to take care of an ailing parent who has emphysema, heart problems or cancer. Considering the myriad of problems the nicotine addiction inflicts upon the children of those addicted to this legal drug, it most certainly SHOULD be considered grounds for finding such parents as unfit to raise children...

So what's more important, your kids or your habit?

I agree 100% Mr. Jaxon. Great post, S+F.


In addition for unborn babies:

On smoking several things happen. Firstly, there is a reduced supply of oxygen, due to the increase of nicotine and carbon monoxide in the mother's bloodstream. This means that there is less oxygen available to the baby, as the harmful substances replace it. The baby will begin to move slower after the mother has smoked a cigarette and the baby's heart will have to work faster, as it tries to breathe in more oxygen. Consequently, its breathing and movement will be altered. In other words it will suffer unnecessary stress.

My habit first started about a year and half ago when I was still in Iraq. Once I got back and left the army I started giving up on smoking. Although I have the craving sometimes I got the support of people who help me quit for good. Parents need to step it up and quit for good no matter how hard it is to quit. $&F

I've heard people compare it to Heroin addiction, but never meth. And as a casual smoker, I would have to say thats a pretty long reach...

In my past I've done a lot of things, so .... I can say that as fact. meth is far more desirable. in every horrible sense of the idea. even now..

but as to the topic - Spot on! The number of times as a child I was forced to suffer what to me at the time was a noxious disgusting stench, cannot be counted...

I wouldn't have wanted to be taken away as a child, or have my parents sent away as it were, but some definite sort of reprimand for forcing me as a small child in the car or wheverer, to inhale that stink... sure..

TO me it was honestly like being forced to breath something that absolutely caused nausea.

I guess it worked tho, casual or not, a few drinks or whatever, tehre I am with one.....

Im sure kids breath in more poison than second hand smoke as soon as they step outside the front door.
Smoking is NOT hard to quit....i have quit several times in my life....for years at a time. Its more to do with personality....like some people cant be hypnotized.

Think of all the toxins in the air outside...all the fumes from cars, all the chemicals from industry....these are more harmful.
Even when cooking on a gas stove your releasing unburned gases into your house...all hype me thinks

EDIT: Certainly NOT grounds to have your children taken away from you.


EDIT2: I love the way it tries to scare people....you will be more likely to become a drug addict if your parents smoke....hahaha too funny

My grandad has been smoking since the age of 14....hes 87 and NO CANCER...my nan smoked for over 50 years....NO CANCER. My great nan died at 98....smoked for 60-70 years....NO CANCER.
My parents arent drug addicts....neither am i

It is a hard habit, I agree. And children should come first. Smoking, after many years becomes such an automaton response that we (and I mean, me, at least) are not always consciousness aware of my bad habit around the younger nieces and nephews. I don't have any children, but I can remember the days I would sit between my mother and father in the s10 pickup while they smoked like chimney stacks.

Was that the case? Is it their fault? I'd have to say no, at least apparent to my perspective. I started smoking at 18 (ten years ago, this made me blink and say "it's been THAT long??") and have quit on and off. I lost both a grandfather and great-grandfather, as well as a grandma, because of cigarettes.

My father is also having a hard time quitting. I mentioned I don't have children but when I am aware I am smoking, sometimes I think back when my father had a heart attack and I saw him laying in the bed and I see myself in him, I'll often use the mantra, "I'll quit smoking so I can be there for my son."

Should people not smoke around kids, sure.
Does the Govt need to or be allowed to get involved, NO.
No more Govt control. When will people learn? The Govt is not all knowing and all seeing, nor should it be.
Be free to decide for yourself.

What I am about to say is in no way directed at you... this is my feeling in general!

The whole "smokers are more likely to use drugs"statement pisses me off! Yes, I smoke, but I do not now or ever have I used drugs, that is a stupid statement made a college educated dumba@@! While I agree that smoking is bad for our health, I have to ask... what isn't?
I refrained from smoking while pregnant and while nursing my babies, although they were around 2nd hand smoke, as was I and my babies weighed 9 and 10 lbs. Neither of my kids have ever been hospitalized, never had ear infections, breathing problems... just the normal school bugs... They are grown now, one of them smokes, one doesn't. I don't like being judged for being a smoker. I can refrain in public, but what I do in my car and in my home is my business! How many people are out there walking around zombified out on legal drugs that are handed out like tic tacs these days... I have tried to quit... did for a while, but you know what... I like it!

And this, both of my parents were and are smokers... unfit parents?? My daddy worked three jobs to make sure his six children had the things we needed and wanted! My mother kept us clean and fed! Smoking doesn't have a damned thing to do with being a good parent! How many non- smokers abuse their children?

I really dislike the smell of your car exhaust....

Can I arrest you for stinking up my air as I enjoy my 200 percent overtaxed cigarette in my house as you sit outside worrying about what I am doing inside...

How do you think everything is paid for around here...

The smokers, drinkers, and gamblers.

At first I thought you were talking about marijuana, and I was like WTF is he talking about. The I realized you meant cigarettes. I'm mixed on the issue. Parents should not be allowed to expose their children to second hand smoke because of the health effects, just like they can't let their children be around other hazardous substances. Unfit to be a parent, however, is way to far. I mean cmon, if you say that, you could expand that to so many other categories, such as being overweight because they would overfeed their child. We can't judge whether someone is fit to be a parent in cases like this, we need to reserve that ability for serious dangers to a child.

Leave smokers alone. They are part of society and are attacked these people, more than people attack terrorist. we keep listen to people who want to stop other people, from doing something that is harmful to themselves, then one day we may as well say" no more skydiving you could die" "no more sex, because others hurt children with it." Its ridiculous. Everybody treats smokers as tho there are the most irresponsible bunch around. This is not the case. I don't smoke either. I used to and know its a bad habit. Its not my right though to pick on people, because they do something I don't like.

Oh and I PAY for my 10,000 dollar a year insurance too.

My mother smoked through both of her pregnancies, and my sister and I were subjected to second hand smoke until we grew up and moved out. I cannot imagine how bad we must have smelled our entire childhood! My mother managed to quit about nineteen years ago and is now 75 years old. She has suffered with COPD for several years. She contracts pneumonia several times a year. Even though she no longer smokes her beloved addiction may lead to a dreadful death.

reply to post by JaxonRoberts


I agree with you, because im 19 and have lived with my mother smoking for years. It's gotten to the point where I bi*** at her to not do it in the house. I mean, how hard is it to go outside? Although she does go outside somewhat, she still smokes in the house quite a bit. Her excuse, like last week, was "My parents smoked in the house the whole time I was growing up, and look were still here." My grandparents are pretty healthy, and my mom is 47. She's been smoking since she was younger than me.

When I was in 10th-11th grade that's when I smoked the most, even then though I wasn't a constant smoker. Usually B&M's and a few cigarettes. I've since stopped doing it, and really only do it every so often, like last night I had half of a Skydancer. At least they are 100% natural though. That was probably the first time in weeks though.

Either way, I just hate it now. Not so much the smoking, just the smoke filling up the place I live in. The stench is the worst when first lit. I will say this though, my bedroom window has literally been contantly open for over a year. Its open now, and will be open for the rest of the year. It may be a waste of electricity, but i'd rather get clean fresh air, and a way for the smoke to filter out then have it contained in one area. Thing that sucks, is I live in Florida, and during the summer its so humid and nasty out, but I just ignore it.

*snip* I rarely smoke in my house, and enjoy going outdoors much better, at least I get fresh air and (at night) get to look at the stars. I believe its not good for you, but I think between my fan running and windows open that might make it a little better. I hope sometimes though that nothing happens to me later in life because of this, but at the same time everyone will die oneday from something and today we probably interact with things that can give you cancer everyday.

Mod Note: Removed reference to recreational drug use.

Don't promote having children ripped away from their parents, that's just in bad taste.

Since I have been smoking, I have maintained my high school weight well into my 30s...
I no longer get ear infections....
it acts as a cough suppressant when I do catch a cold... and I rarely do after my smoking habit...
I also read that nicotine helps counter the negative affects of Sodium Fluoride (no wonder they want everyone to quit)...
and last of all, I will never trust those mainstream foudnations that do nothing more than cover up things that could affect corporate interests.

Smoke if you want, don't if you don't, and don't infringe on the rights of others by smoking around them if they dislike it.

A smoke Nazi?
yay

In Japan most men smoke but because they eat better and exercise, the conditions associated with smoking in North America are completely BOGUS.

The whole thing about cigarettes was it was propoganda that made smoking popular in the first place ( just look up Bernaise and how he used debutantes to convince women to smoke in the 50s. And its propaganda about getting them to quit now

This is all about Nazi /Stalinist /rabbinical/ witch doctor/priest control over the people...
sheeple I mean.
take your riddlin it will all go away if you choose to believe it will

I agree with the above statements but what about the people 30 years ago who didn't have access to all of the information about just how bad cigarettes were? I mean, for a time cigarette commercials were designed to show how "cool" it was to smoke. Maybe, now in this time period, that could be said about younger parents but the damage is pretty much already done.

Remember though, if you can't beat them join them. That's what Big Tobacco did and look how much money they are raking in on anti-tobacco ads and patches? I'm not saying that people should smoke, I'm just saying that some people are still ignorant to just how harmful cigarettes can be.

Let's also take children away from parents who...

Are both consuming alcohol at a pizza joint (someone has to drive)
Are allowing their children to consume happy meals and pepsi every other day (fat kills)
Are spending summers with their children by the pool (cancer is ugly and deadly)

The list could go on and on. The air outside is polluted terribly. Can we put them in a bubble?

Who gets the final say in what sin is bad enough to remove children from their home and place them in a far more broken system like foster care?

I am by no means saying it is healthy or it is right, but really?

There is almost nothing worse than a reformed smoker...

there is a difference between a parent that smokes and a parent that smokes in the house. We have a smoking table outside and only go there when child is busy. I enjoy a cigarette and cup of coffee, but obviously choking your child out with smoke is stupid

My parents smoked with me in the car, at the table, in fact if you remember the smoking laws 20 years ago, we were all subject to second hand smoke on buses in malls, on planes, in theaters... you name it, i guess anybody alive back then should have lung cancer by now so we are ALL going to die now...