With all these warm days we’ve been experiencing here in East Tennessee, the kids and I have spent several beautiful afternoons at the park. Better soak up the nice weather before it becomes unbearably hot, I say.
While pushing Ella on the swings, I smelled…something. I turned around a saw a woman pushing her daughter on a different set of swings smoking. It caught me off-guard because I NEVER see people smoking anymore. (Okay, NEVER isn’t entirely true, I see people smoking behind buildings on their breaks and inside their cars.) I guess it would be more accurate to say I rarely see people smoking anymore and almost never around kids.
I started to think about who I know that smokes and I could only think of a handful, not counting the social I-only-smoke-when-I-drink smokers. The people I know that smoke are very thoughtful not to smoke in my home or car or around my kids. In fact, I don’t think I ever see the smokers I know actually SMOKING.
Since we were outside at the park, I didn’t really care that the woman was smoking. It’s not like were were trapped in an elevator with her and her cancer stick. I did think that smoking at the park was, well…, I don’t know exactly WHAT I want to say. I guess if I were a smoker, the park is not a place I would smoke because I’d fear people (read: scowling mommies) might say something about smoking around kids.
I just never see other moms at the park smoking! It was weird, okay? Smoking is just not the norm in my group of friends and it’s not the norm at the park. Most of the moms I see at the park are sipping their Venti Startbucks coffees and talking on their cell phones while ignoring their kids.
Welcome to Tennessee.
(sigh!)
It would have driven me crazy. But my kids probably would have made a comment about how they don’t like that smell because they are kind of sensitive to bad smells.
So I just let them share an opinion in my stead. (I know, I’m bad!)
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I think it’s totally odd. I would take pause when I saw it as well. I mean, I am not one to actually say somthing, and I guess in the grand scheme of things, doing it in an open park is better than say, in the car…but still…around kids is an odd place to ight up.
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It’s rare that I smell smokers at our playground. If they are there they are normally about 10ft away from the edge of the playground puffing away — but the smell still bothers me. What can ya do?
Everyone smoked in London- on the streets, in pubs, outside cafes, everywhere, but I never once saw anyone light up at the park with children around.
In Silicon Valley, however, the parents don’t even let their kids play in sand.
Grace´s lastest post..Is There A Support Group For Addicts Like Me?
I agree! You know, it’s funny that you wrote about this because last night we were at my husband’s softball game and this guy was smoking right front and center (and there were TONS of children around!). He obviously didn’t have children and seemed so unconcerned about his cancer stick. Oh and it was so funny because my 3 year old kept saying, “Mommy, what’s that SMELL???”
Becca´s lastest post..Springtime and softball and tans, oh my
I smelled someone smoking the other day in the parking lot at Target and was surprised at how weird it was. I didn’t realize how long it had been since I’d smelled that! The only person I know who smokes regularly is my dad (grrr) and he always does it outside away from all of us.
I’m hoping that by the time our kids are older, smoking is much much less of an issue. One less thing we have to worry about as parents? I HOPE?? LOL
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Yes, I rarely see that either.
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Tattoos will be the smoking of the next generation. Hip & nervy & sophisticated…And smoking will be the way tattoos used to be – for the gangster-types, criminals & hoodlums. My kids already sneer and point accusingly, “Eeew, look! It’s a smoker!” Love it!!!
ML´s lastest post..At Least 82 Reasons It’s More Than Miraculous I Haven’t Caved on the Lenten Sacrifice of Chocolate
It’s probably a demographic thing.
Here in the UK, smoking habits are 20 years behind. I see Mum’s, smoking while pusing babies in pushchairs. While pregnant. again, demographics come into it, our town has a big military base, & we live between the University & a large council housing estate (public housing). both groups will turn up a lot of younger and/or uneducated mum’s.
It’s actually a law that you can’t smoke at our parks, especially within a certain distance from the playground. Of course, we live in California where you can’t smoke just about anywhere anymore.
Headless Mom´s lastest post..Idol-Top 13
I am thoroughly convinced that people who smoke do not think about other people who do not smoke. Maybe that’s harsh, but it sure seems that way to me. Also, people who smoke do not smell the smoke and thus it doesn’t even cross their mind that other people might find it offensive. I’ve seen it at the park several times before and it is just weird and off-putting. Here in WA we are lucky as now we have the no-smoking in any building law (even bars!) and it’s heaven! But, you still have people smoking right outside of businesses without caring one bit (even though they are supposed to stay 25 feet away from any building when they light up). This is definitely a hot button issue with me- heightened mostly by the fact that my mom died of lung cancer after smoking for 30 years. I cannot believe people still smoke without being scared to death (literally) of the health risks! It shocks me every time I see it and probably always will!
Taboo maybe the word your looking for. Sure it probably happens but you just don’t ever see it.
Jean M.´s lastest post..Forgive Me Internets For I Have Sinned
In this information age you can’t play the uneducated card. We have some real breeds where I am and it makes me cah-ray-zay seeing them sealed up in their cars with 5 kids, ciggy goin’, window open just a crack…at some point you just have call selfish idiot.
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I’m in China, where everyone smokes, everywhere. And they spit! At the playground this weekend, one guy spit right in the sand where the kids were digging. He wasn’t trying to be rude – he just needed to spit and there he was. So gross! So, so gross.
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At the playground is definitely odd. My mom used to smoke but never around my kids. When we’d go to the park with the kids, she’d go a great distance away from any of them. She was more respectful to them than she was when I was growing up in her house, but then there wasn’t great education about smoking then.
My dad was pretty good too, but used to laugh when he’d go to this one particular restaurant. He’d go out to the street at the side of the restaurant and light up. Several people would frown and walk pointedly around him in a wide circle towards the street. You know, nearer to all the cars emitting pollution at a much greater rate than his cigarette.
all things BD´s lastest post..I’m So Hungry, I’ve Got My Days Wrong
I’m an ex-smoker. I loved smoking but I had to give it up when the kiddos came along. I will say that it is rare to see anyone smoke these days. I don’t mind others smoking as long as it isn’t somewhere that it will bother the kids (indoors). I would find it weird to see them smoking on the playground…mostly because I would be afraid other moms might start throwing stones or something. People are militant even outside – it has become completely unacceptable socially. And I still miss it.
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I take issue with anyone smoking around my child. even if we are outside! it is now proven the second hand smoke can cause cancer. and I just lost a friend to lung cancer, so I have even less patience. People are free to smoke, but I don’t want it around my child. I have friends that smoke ( literally like 2 left) and they would never smoke around children!
courtney from mommie blogs´s lastest post..cute way to go green
my favorite is when someone is smoking while watching runners race….i love that
feener´s lastest post..Honey Kix Cereal Giveaway
There are a few smokers at our playground now & then. Just like in high school they all gather at one corner together and look sneaky while puffing away. I don’t really care because it’s outside & generally upwind from the playsets. I’ve never smoked personally but 90% of the people I know have at some point been smokers. Nearly all of them have quit now.
I have friends who hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1998. The whole thing from Georgia to Maine, averaging about 20 miles a day. They were smokers. Their favorite thing was getting to the top of mountain & having a cigarette. They loved the looks the day hikers gave them.
Stacey~ComfyMom´s lastest post..Misunderestimated
You just think they’re drinking Starbucks. 10:1 says they save the cup and pour wine in it for the park.
It is VERY rare where I live to see smoking.
Of course, it’s also rare to see anyone drinking Starbucks, either. ;P
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Smoking is not normal around the parks here either. Unless you are a teenager
Angella´s lastest post..Mad At Dad?
That is strange! It’s like a scene from the 1920s or something. She might have had a martini in the other hand. Or from the 50′s, with a G&T.
Jane Who´s lastest post..Is everyone’s family so full of drama?
Up until I quit in January (for good this time, and I’m pregnant again) I would occasionally smoke at the local park. Keep in mind though, we were almost always there alone and if not, it being a lower/working class neighborhood in texas, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see the other parents lighting up too. It was not a Starbucks crowd down there lol.
But I would not smoke at playgroup, around others children, and much as I hate to admit it only around my son (now 19 months) if we were outside and not enclosed.
Either way, happy to be done with it and looking forward to when DH quits too, likely once he’s out of the navy. And neither of us EVER smoked indoors. Yuck yuck ewwwwwww
I gotta say though, I was verrrrry hesitant my first time lighting up at the park, even alone. It is weird.
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Why should they smoke close to there love ones when it will affect the health of there love ones.
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I’ve seen people smoking in their cars while the kids are in the backseat. I’ve also smelled people smoking at the park. I don’t think that smoking at the park is a good thing…
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I suppose it depends on which park I go to whether parents are smoking. In Decatur it was pretty normal for young parents to sit around with other young parents puffing and cussing away. In Bloomington I bet a smoker would be set upon by the other parents.
Rayne of Terror´s lastest post..I saw the signs
You’re right. That’s way weird. I probably would have said something. Well, my kids would have said something. I hate having to walk right past smokers to get into a store. But to have someone smoking at a park? Even that we don’t see very often in GA.
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you should see some of the parents at the cleveland zoo. there are designated smoking spots just for them.
OHmommy´s lastest post..Tantrums are the "new black."
Yeah. At least she was outside, I guess.
I can’t tell you how violent I get when I see people smoking in the car with their kids in the backseat. Grrr.
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I am a smoker myself but i do not smoke around children. I refuse to smoke in my home, car, or even in an open area around children. I plan on quitting but as i am sure you have heard before it is easier said than done.
I just feel like if you went to the park to let your kid play than you should be playing with them. If you cant go a few hours without a smoke then there is something wrong with your impulse.
I have to say, despite what most people say, smokers are aware that others are offended by smoking, it is shoved down their throat quite often. I think a lot of smokers avoid smoking in public so as not to offend people. (Besides smoking is banned in most places.) I do not smoke in a non-smoker’s home or car, I don’t leave butts laying around, I do not smoke around people who are offended by it. I try to be nice about my habit. I do however find that it was rude of the mom to smoke so close to other people’s children, she should have moved away from them.
justmylife´s lastest post..*&@%*^@#&%^
I just don’t understand why anyone would want kids to see them smoking. It’s terrible!
As someone who grew up with a “SMOKEY MOM” I detest smoking. I especially hate when people do it right outside of an entrance and I have to walk by it. Ew.
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That’s a RARITY around here. Can’t even imagine how I’d react… Probably make my kids go to the other side of the playground, because my eldest does have asthma. We don’t need any extra triggers!
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I’ve seen that a handful of times myself, and it is weird!
Jenny Henny´s lastest post..Say what?
I guess I’d rather see a mom outside at a playground pushing her daughter on a swing with a cigarette in her hand than a mom on her cell phone ignoring her child at the playground.
Ugh. I used to have this one friend (read: ex-friend) that would meet my kids and I, at the park … and she couldn’t make it 1/2 and hour without smoking. It was quite repulsive!
I have to admit that I would have no idea what to think either. I mean, if you want to smoke, be my guest, as long as you don’t do it in my home I won’t complain. But it does seem odd that she picked a playground to bust out the cigarette.
On the other hand, maybe she had a really rotten day and she just needed some comfort?
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All my smokey friends don’t have kids (yet). But in my neighborhood, mom’s don’t smoke, they drink their 40′s in a paper bag. classy no?
DesignHER Momma´s lastest post..Bliss & Boots
oh, i HATE when people smoke at the playground. a couple times my kid’s almost caught a cigarette in the eye because of them. it’s jut not an appropriate place to be swinging a burning stick.
I passed someone smoking on the sidewalk today, and I was thinking the same thing. It’s just not soemthing I’m used to anymore either.
Cookie´s lastest post..Not Me
I was at a park once where a Dad was smoking and pushing kid on a swing.
Even as a fairly recent ex-smoker I can’t imagine doing that. When I was still smoking I NEVER let my kids see it. EVER.
Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah´s lastest post..10 Reasons You Should Be Watching Women’s Basketball
*sigh* I wish it was rare around here. I have been behind people who light us as soon as they get out of the Target doors with no regard to the people behind them.
It is getting rarer, but I wish it more so.
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I agree with Heather .. wine, not Starbucks. And if it IS Starbucks, it has vodka in it.
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The same thing happened to us early one morning at the playground and it was really weird.
Luckily I just had my younger daughter, because my five year old announces “I SMELL SOMETHING STINKY LIKE A SKUNK” whenever we pass within ten feet of a person smoking.
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I grew up in the house with a smoker and he smoked in his car and everything but now…..now that you mention it, the only people I see smoking are the ones in my family who have been brandished to the outdoors and “people behind buildings” taking breaks from their jobs.
I probably wouldn’t have said anything either because the only other place we encounter it is at the ball fields and inevitably someone will always sit beside us and will always be upwind from us…it drives me nuts….but I’ve never said anything. I hate confrontation.
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I hardly ever see it either. I would also have been surprised.
I always have a Starbucks, and I’ve on occasion had one eye on the kid and one on my Crackberry, but only if the kid had just been making me bonkers that day.
amy @ milk breath and margaritas´s lastest post..Philosophy of Blogging 101
I’m a rehabbed smoker, and I NEVER smoked in public. I smoked behind the building where I used to work, and in the bar (which I don’t consider a public place *shrug*). It’s tactless to smoke near non-smokers. Shame on her.
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