People Smoking Around Children & In Public?

Question

I have a 1 year old daughter who I dont want breathing cigarette smoke. So when I see someone smoking right at the door of a restaurant of in most case Walmart, I am forced to wait until they are done smoking and THEN go inside.

In the past I would say something to0 them Like can you please not smoke at the door, I dont want my daughter breathing tobacco smoke.

Speaking up about this almost got me in a punching match with this guy one time.

Whenever i speak up (no mater how I say it) people seem to get real angry. Personal,y i thin its because they know they are doing something wrong and they are embarrassed.

So tell me, how would YOU deal with this problem? Assuming you don't already smoke in front of kids.

Answer 1

Boy, this is a touchy subject. I was a smoker for over 25 yrs. I finally quit about 5 yrs ago. I really liked it though but it became too costly and of course was always unhealthy. Smokers are very defensive as they are becoming out numbered these days.

If I were you, I'd just avoid them completely. Find another way into the building or store or restaurant. I will admit it is rude for peeps to smoke at any entrance other than a bar. It smells bad but, it's just fr a few seconds that you and your child would take it in. Believe me, there are many other toxins and pollution in the air that you and yours breathe in all the time. From car exhaust and big semi- trucks to bus's and of course factory's witch I'm sure are more harmful to us than some cigarette smoke.

When I was a smoker and it bothered someone, I'd either turn it out or move to another area.You will encounter sensible smokers from time to time. I would not smoke around kids by the way!

Hope this helped you....... ;)

Answer 2

AWH come on why don't you anti smokers give everyone a break?????????? I quit smoking years ago and I am tired of you and other talking about this second hand smoke ****! I grew up with everyone around me smoking including me. Only reason I quit was cause I was looking for a job and they needed a breathing test to get hired. So I quit to pass the test they had. I still after 20 years love the smell of the smoke when other smoke cigs. I tell you this Lay off one day the smokers will get mad then you will really be in for it big time. If a person wants to smoke then that is their given rights to do so. If you and others do not want to smell it then that is your right to leave the room! You anti smokers are really really going to far and it will one day catch up with you big time so back off now while you still have the chance! OHHHHH!!!!! and just so you know I am 63 years old and going strong and not cause i stoped smoking or smelling second hand smoke! I also see this thing will not spell chitttt, to bad!

Answer 3

Most smokers smoke where the management, at stores or at work, places the cigarette butt receptacle. Look at them next time. They are standing right next to the little can. If the can is right next to the doorway, that's where the smokers will congregate. Move the can.
Our city law states no smoking within 20 feet of an entranceway. When the law went into effect, little signs went up "20 feet away for smoking", the cans moved and so did the smokers.
Lobby your city representative for a similar ordinance. 20 feet away is not that big of an inconvenience, it's simply that new habits need to be established.

Answer 4

You really need some professional psychological help. You will allow your precious daughter to go through the parking lot at Walmart, but not get a half of a breath of "tainted" air from someone OCCASIONALLY smoking a cigarette in public.

I am a non-smoker, I don't like the smell of cigarettes anymore, although I used to smoke 4 packs a day before smoking some 20 years ago.

Think about all the REAL pollution in the world she lives, and realize how terribly silly you are being, and perhaps even harming her psychologically by causing her to be overly fearful of normal everyday occurrences. How about: walking past the beauty shop in a mall with the permanent hair solution in the air; the exhaust from buses and cars, GERMS!!! You'd make this kid a neurotic mess, cool your jets a bit buddy.

Answer 5

I'm a mother and I don't want people to smoke around my son, so I understand your concern. Try to keep everything in perspective though. I'm sure you do everything in your power to keep your child away from smoke (not sitting in the smoking section, not letting people smoke in your house, not taking him over to your aunt (who smoke 2 packs a day's) house. But in reality the microsecond it takes you to walk past a smoker outside Walmart isn't going to affect your child. They want to smoke, and have followed all the rules of not smoking inside. Really you probably exposed your child to a lot more smoke in the time it took you to ask these people not to smoke than you ever would have if you just kept moving. The notion that a microsecond of secondhand smoke is going to doom our children to a lifetime of ailments is very recent. When we were kids nobody even thought twice about it, and in our parents generation pregnant mothers smoked without a second thought! What if someone is burning leaves? Do you tell them to put out the flame too? What about when you burn dinner? Do you think that is going to cause irreperable damage? It's all just smoke......

Answer 6

I agree with most of the people above, but here's another practical suggestion: A one-year old is ready to learn to hold their breath in the bath as an early lesson in water safety. So while your child is in the bath, teach them a fun game starting with blowing bubbles and progressing to breath holding. (This will help your child avoid drowning in the unlikely event they ever fall into a pool or whatever.) OK, so now your child knows how to hold their breath, make a game of practicing when you go through clouds of smoke or any other stinky places.

Answer 7

You wait until they finish smoking to go inside? COME ON! Your daughter will be completely unaffected by the waft of smoke that probably won't even get near you guys in the three seconds it takes to walk in the door. Your daughter will not get sick because of that. Waiting in a parking lot with speeding cars and exhaust everywhere is probably more dangerous for your daughter.

Of course you shouldn't smoke in front of children. That's why people don't smoke at elementary schools, or daycares, or places like that. But you don't have the right, even morally, to get in somebody's face about what they're doing to their own body. Effects of "Secondhand smoke" in instances of walking by people who are nonexistant. People who suffer the effects of secondhand smoke are individuals who are constantly surrounded by cigarette smoke - people working in bars, people living in households where others smoke indoors all the time.

I would be incredibly offended if you came up to me with your daughter in tow, in a public place like a Walmart, and started complaining about my own habits. I mean a school, a daycare, a playground... I would understand that of course, and not because I'd be worried about giving kids cancer from secondhand smoke, but because I just wouldn't want to be a smoker in a place surrounded by kids.

You and your daughter are not the only people in the world. Your values and opinions do not automatically take over other's values and opinions.

I'm a smoker, and most of the time I'm smoking in my car on my way somewhere, or maybe outside at a party or something at night, and at school (university). If I see kids, I tend to move away, at least make sure my smoke doesn't hit the kid. But as a responsibly parent it is your job to take care of your child, not others. If you see a smoker, walk by them fast, that's probably the best thing to do. Or find another way. Walmart does not have a single tiny door, it has a big entrance.

Answer 8

Well, I smoke only in front of my kids when they insist on coming outside of our apartment, and even then I at least TRY to blow the smoke away from them. When it's a person smoking around their kids, I really don't say anything. If you're a smoker, you realize that you're not "in to" being lectured, and nothing you do or say to them will make them change their minds. If I see this, or (and I'm TRULY disgusted by this) a pregnant woman, smoking, I kind of roll my eyes and give an "ugh" sound, and walk into the building.

Answer 9

Wow, this is a touchy subject, and I have to admit, never fails to hit a nerve with me. Snotty non-smokers irritate me. I try to be considerate with my habit. I don't smoke in their homes, I don't smoke in the non-smoking section. Leave me alone. I'm not pregnant, and I dont' blow it in the faces of children passing by. I have done my part to get along with the non-smokers in the world, seems it's past time for them to do the same in return. It never ceases to amaze me the rudeness and self-righteousness that non-smokers seem to display. Why don't you just buy yourself one of those little white face masks for you and your daughter, and stop trying to infringe on the few remaining rights smokers actually have left. After all, you can control yourself, not others. They were following the rules, it seems to me, you were the problem, and as others have said, that nanosecond it takes you to get in the store isn't going to hurt her, provided you don't stop to argue with every smoker you come in contact with.

Did you know that they did a study in the San Francisco Bay area about the pollution there? They discovered that a year of driving that lovely polluted commute there, was worse that any amount of second hand smoke those poor commuters could be exposed to? Now there is a band wagon you should jump on!

In the meantime, try and remember that just because you feel you are right, and really do have your daughter's best interests at heart, that doesn't excuse any kind of rudeness!

Answer 10

I do smoke and I have 2 healthy adult children. I think that it's absolutely ridiculous that you feel like you can't walk by a person smoking... outside. might be a different story if they were smoking inside a closed structure or blowing smoke in your baby's face. Lighten up a little bit.... ! Smokers don't feel like they're doing something wrong, we're just unfortunately addicted to tobacco....at least we're not standing in front of Wal-mart smoking crack.