Published
What do you think?
What do you think?
Illegal? No. What a person does in their home is their own business. I do think that a lot of parents need more education on the effects of smoking and 2nd hand smoke on their children's health. I hate hate hate to see people smoking around their children, especially small children. And smoking in the car with the kids is the worse.
And we come a full circle.It is extremely evident that you are focusing only on the effects of second hand smoke in relation to asthma and on this alone you are trying to promote discussion on creating a new law.
I am have been trying to present the thought- that of course smoking in enclosed ares with children is horrible, but we can not ignore all other lifestyle choices that effect children negatively. Many other posters have presented other situations that are equally harming, but they seem to go unheard.
There has not been a single suggestion on how you would police such a law, or the consequences if this hypothetical law is broken. Do you propose to fine families? Socially that would probably make their overall situation worse in many cases. Perhaps the children would only eat twice a day instead of three because of lack of funds.
Would you threaten to place children in foster care? If that is your solution, please look into the dismal state of foster care systems in the US. To make a long story short, they're already lacking, and children placed are often times no better off than they were before. The graduation rate for foster children is poor, lifetime poverty high and mental repercussions abysmal.
Who would report such discrepancies in following this new law? Neighbors? The children themselves? Have you read the book 1987?
How would the law be applied equally, because honestly I see this as leaning towards another poverty based discrimination type situation.
Do you think that the police are going to remove a child that lives in a 4500 sq foot house with private sailing lessons on the weekend from his CEO dad that smokes in the library and place the child in foster care, or do you think it more likely that it will be the low-income single mother with three kids in a 2 room apartment that feels the brunt of this "law".?
Again, all this for smoking, but why not childhood obesity? Why allow Mothers to take Ambien while their children sleep, or speed in their vehicles, or have a get-together and allow adults to become intoxicated? Own animals with children with allergies, feed diabetic children chocolate coco puffs for breakfast? sleep with infants in their beds? not breastfeed?
The root of the problem is how much can be controlled and how much should be controlled.
Look...I see all of your points and agree with you on many...our world is going to POT!
My niece was on ambien and overdosed with her 5 year old in the car. We took her to the hospital and reported it. Her child is now in the care of my sister, so I don't have a problem taking action on other unsafe issues...trust me! My niece has a history of bipolar and she is not stable, the child was suffering.
Obesity is way out of control! Don't even get me started on that one. We as nurses need to be the example in all ways that we can!
Perhaps I should rephrase my original post to be that of "who thinks action should be taken if"...because when education isn't good enough, who has a voice for these kids!
We have laws for a reason...and again...we need to pick and choose our battles...second hand smoke just seems so cruel IMO!!!
What I would love to know. Where all the children of these suddenly abusive and unfit parents going to go? The foster care system is weak as it is a someone else previously posted. You want to make smoking illegal, in the home or car, when around children. What punishment will be imposed? Fines? Prison? Smoking Offender Registry? What about those that drink in front of their children? What about those that are morbidly obese and have children around them? If you want to make something illegal because of being harmful for a child then you better make it illegal to feed your child junk food or to have a child with a BMI over the recommended limit for their age. Because childhood obesity is imho 10 times worse than an otherwise good person who smokes in their own home.Remember alcohol was illegal at one point in our recent past. How well did that work out from a socioeconomic standpoint? Did it solve anything? Did it "save" anyone?
It is illegal to smoke in a car with a child in certain states...so what about hitting people with a fine if someone reports them? If they can give you a fine for speeding and littering, how much more a human LIFE!
It is illegal to smoke in a car with a child in certain states...so what about hitting people with a fine if someone reports them? If they can give you a fine for speeding and littering, how much more a human LIFE!
if all the kinks could be worked out, i'd be in total support of this.
also, whenever a baby/child is brought to the dr's, the dr should be emphasizing the hazards of secondary smoke.
i don't care if the kid is coming in for a belly ache, practitioners need to take advantage of any/all opportunites.
leslie
OMG! are you serious? The whole anti-smoking thing has gone far enough without someone planning to have parents arrested for freakin child abuse because they smoke in THEIR OWN HOME!!You know what, when I was a kid, parents smoked in the home, car, bank, grocery store, hospital, any place. They also drank a beer or two while driving, never wore seat belts. Kids would stay out playing until 10 or 11 pm, kids never wore helmets riding their bikes and kids got hurt playing and it was just normal kids will be kids crap. Kids werent put on Ritalin or other drugs for hyperactivity or ADD, they were kids, they are suppose to have energy. Kids weren't on all the freakin asthma meds, your mom didn't run you to the doctor for every sneeze, cough or fever. Today's parents are whiney and paranoid of anything and everything and shelter their kids from way too much.
IF you think making laws about smoking is so freakin important, just go for broke and make cigs completely illegal. At least then we wouldnt have these whiney cry babies who complain that someone within 500 feet of them are smoking and causing their nose to tickle. Jeesh.
a nose tickle...I WISH! GET REAL!
I don't want government intrusion into the home any more than their already is. A parent who really loves their children or spouse will not smoke in the home. Period. I may get flamed for that statement but I firmly believe it to be the truth.It's a proven fact that second hand smoke is damaging to others including the unborn. How you can claim to "love" someone and then physically hurt them is beyond me.
I wouldn't want government intrusion in my home either and I don't think it would have to go that far. I think we start with a report from a child, proof you see it and report it, then the person gets fined. If they think they are not guilty, they fight it! If they are guilty...they pay!
AndyLyn
95 Posts
I had an 8 month old last night that couldn't breathe.
Both parents smoke.
Both grandparents that help care for the baby smoke.
They all love the baby very, very much.
Until I spent a good 15 minutes talking with them about how harmful second hand smoke is to a baby, they claimed (and from their expressions I believe them) they had no idea just how harmful it would be to the little one that they loved so much.
We need to do a better job of making an impact on smoking parents of how damaging smoking around their children can be. Not everyone has the same knowledge we do, and I make it a personal mission while I'm triaging or doing bedside care to make sure that every parent knows when they leave that their smoking is hurting their baby. What they do with that knowledge after they are discharged or transferred is up to them.