Smoking around kids - indoors

Amen! I grew up with it too, and I'm fairly certain that I have diminished lung capacity today because of it. It's disgusting.

I would not take children (baby or older) into a home where people smoke. Even if they smoke outside while you are there, everything in the home is permeated with that smell... and you will be too when you leave.

My father was a pipe smoker. I used to beg him to quit when I was little to no avail. When I was pregnant with my first, he put the pipes down and never smoked one again. He said he wasn't taking the risk that I would carry out my childhood threats to him.

I feel sorry for smokers who are addicted. It's a disgusting habit and it affects your interactions with others. My husband's aunt & uncle are the only people we are close to who still smoke. I love them, but I hate that smell. Yuck.

My in-laws used to smoke in their home; I would have never dreamed of telling them we couldn't, and we did visit with our young children and babies.
 

No way would I let a baby around smokers, even if they went outside to smoke. When I worked on a med/surg floor the attendings always had to ask if the parents were smokers (standard H&P question) and told adults who smoked to smoke outside and THEN to change their clothes before engaging in any physical contact with a child. IMO, Abby is wrong.

I hate smoke! I wouldn't expose my 12, 16 and 18 yr old to smoke! I wouldn't go even if it was my own family.

But I would invite them over to my house and just say that I didn't want to be around the smoke because it bothers me. They could smoke outside. How could they not go without smoking for a few hours to enjoy the new baby, or older child or adult!

If I had a time machine and could go back to the late 60's/early 70's that is the one thing I would change. Both my husband and I smoked around our 3 children. It just sickens me to admit that knowing what I know now. Thank the good Lord they seem to have survived our ignorance without lasting effect. Now, of course, as a reformed smoker, there is no way I would allow smoking in my home much less allow a child to be in that poisonous atmosphere if given any choice in the matter.

When my dd was about 15 mos. old, she had tubes put in her ears, and it was done about 5 days before Christmas. The ENT specifically said do not bring her around cigarette smoke.

Dh's aunt always invited us over for Christmas Eve, and he'd been going to her house on Christmas Eve since he was little. His aunt, her husband, all their kids and their spouses smoke, and they all smoked in the house. DH called and told her we wouldn't be able to make it that year because of dd's tubes/smoke. Woman got pissed! She said it was probably best from there on out to spend the holidays separately since there were small kids now. Alrighty then; we've never been invited back, and that was 16 years ago. Seriously, her loss not mine.

Apparently if I were a good Pea and good mother, my children would never see or know any of their grandparents. That makes me really sad.

Dear Abby is obviously a twit.

No way would I subject a newborn baby - or any child for that matter - to a house full of smoke. In fact I probably wouldn't subject myself to a house full of smoke. If the smokers are too selfish consider the well being of everyone else and smoke outside, I would definitely stay at home. 

It's bad enough when my in-laws have the extended family over - they all smoke outside but leave the door open so it drifts inside anyway. Blech! (And yes, I used to smoke back in the 80's - even inside!)

My mother didn't talk to me for a month after my ds (1st baby) was born because we were planning a visit out there and booked a hotel vs. staying with her. I told her that I didn't want my ds being exposed to all the smoke. She eventually got over it and knows now that when we come out, we don't stay with her. It's bad enough we have to be around the smoke at all when we're outside. And when she comes here to visit, she smokes outside.

You can't tell people what to do in their own homes but can make concessions as in arranging to meet in a neutral place. No, babies won't die from a little smoke exposure but it isn't good for them at any rate. Babies won't die form a little alcohol exposure either (people numbed babies gums to soothe them when teething) but it certainly is frowned upon these days. We know so much more about the effects of smoke on lungs so where do you draw the line?

My parents both smoked my entire childhood and my brother had tubes in his ears a couple of times, quite possibly from the smoke exposure. I had ear infections all the time. Not worth it to expose children. My babysitter for my first child began smoking and before I had a chance to change sitters (I was young and overwhelmed by everything), my baby had developed an ear infection that we just couldn't get rid of. She built up a tolerance to the antibiotics and ended up with tubes. Seeing your child go through this makes the decision easy. Maybe it was the smoke, maybe not but too coincidental and none of my other three ever had any ear issues. I should have reacted faster and can't believe I didn't because I have been anti cigarettes since I moved out of my parents home. The smell disgusts me.

Nope, wouldn't be attending a party with smokers and that is my choice. Smokers may have the right to smoke but their choice impacts me if I am around them. My choice to not smoke does not impact their health. It doesn't seem fair.

Hell no.

I sat on my grandfather's knee while he smoked Marlboros like a chimney. I loved how the smoke would curl through the air and make shapes like the clouds. I lived in NC, and NOBODY knew anything about the effects of 2nd hand smoke in the early 80s. Even when the rest of the country was getting a clue, the tobacco industry, which was NC's biggest "industry" really pressured the media to not report on the dangers. NC is still one of the areas where people still smoke. 

It is finally illegal to smoke in public buildings. Dh and I were in Chicago when that law passed there, and it was such a relief. 

Dh has had lifelong severe asthma. He wasn't around smoke as an infant, but he almost died from asthma and pneumonia. It turned out that there was BLACK MOLD in the walls of his bedroom. 

MIL's father was a coal miner when she was little. The house was heated with coal. She has severe breathing issues. The coal industry also pressured the media and even doctors about diagnosing people with black lung. 

It's a horrible thing to see anyone, especially someone you love, not be able to breathe. Poor MIL has had it so bad. 

I've had mediastinal emphysema twice--a small lobe in the lung collapses and makes it incredibly difficult to breathe. I had to be hospitalized twice for 4 days and put on oxygen and pain meds because the more you try to breathe normally, the faster the lobe heals.

The second time I had mediastinal emphysema, I was visiting my dad and was around cigarette smoke for less that 5 minutes when we stopped at a small gas station/grill for homemade country ham biscuits that let people smoke inside. I even went outside to get away from the smoke while my dad got the food. 

I didn't feel good afterwards and was having a harder and harder time breathing. It got so bad my dad rushed me to the hospital. I was hospitalized for 4 days again. Dad was really scared. 

Knowing all of this, I couldn't let any child around smoke. 

I would nicely ask my relative to stop the smoking while I visited, but I think a lot of smokers realize the dangers and could understand. I wouldn't threaten, but I'd just ask if they really want to cause the child to suffer. 

My grandfather felt so horrible when he finally heard what second hand smoke was doing to us. That's when he finally quit.

Knowing how bad being around smokers makes ME feel, there's no way in hell I would bring a child into that kind of toxicity. And considering that smoking is so bad for everyone's health, you would think that the smoker would want to make sure that they are not putting anyone, especially small children, at risk for illness. 

It may be sad, but what's more important? I would think growing up healthy and modeling healthy habits would be more important than letting smokers around a small child. Especially if they still smoke indoors. There are other ways for relationships to be built beyond putting children into a home full of smoke and second hand smoke and residue.