To all of you smokers with kids.
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My kids are grown but I would only smoke cigars on my long commutes so they only had to put up with a stinky vehicle. I always smoked my pipe moderately in the house around them but some of my best memories are with me sitting in my late Barcalounger with a big pipe in my gob and a boy in my lap. 8O
My opinion is that kids are like any other passenger. They have the right to not be around my smoke. Being kids they need an advocate to speak for them as they are too young to make good decisions for themselves. That advocate is you as a parent. The essence of great parenting in selflessness. Be a good dad and wait. Post in this thread before you drive and I will wait with you. I'll bet we all will wait with you. Then we will all enjoy a great smoke together later.
I wont even smoke in the car with me. We can say we don't inhale, but if you are in a confined space you are subject to your own second hand smoke...
I find that pipe smoke might smell great while you are smoking it, but in the end it still leaves the same stale smell all other smoking does.
Smokers may be nose blind to it, but its pretty easy to tell who's parents smoke by the smell of the kids cloths.
I find that pipe smoke might smell great while you are smoking it, but in the end it still leaves the same stale smell all other smoking does.
Smokers may be nose blind to it, but its pretty easy to tell who's parents smoke by the smell of the kids cloths.
OP, this may come as a shock to you but it's best you know now....smoking can lead to cancer.
To answer your question, there is no safe age from a medical standpoint.
The list of countries and states that have a ban on smoking around children is pretty long. Take a peek here to see if your's is listed (ignore the title in the link, it's a global list)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_bans_in_private_vehicles#United_States
BTW: as the link hints, it is illegal in many US states currently and several more have it on the books for upcoming legislation.
Even Arkansas has a ban in effect.....which is saying a lot because I'm pretty sure it's legal to marry a pig there.
To answer your question, there is no safe age from a medical standpoint.
In large part, the reason we must have laws is to protect those that can not defend themselves from the stupidity of others. This is a prime example.
The list of countries and states that have a ban on smoking around children is pretty long. Take a peek here to see if your's is listed (ignore the title in the link, it's a global list)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_bans_in_private_vehicles#United_States
BTW: as the link hints, it is illegal in many US states currently and several more have it on the books for upcoming legislation.
Even Arkansas has a ban in effect.....which is saying a lot because I'm pretty sure it's legal to marry a pig there.
Wow, the temperament of the forum has definitely changed. I remember when second-hand smoke would have been challenged right away. Then others would have posted how we've become a nanny state. This would have been the responses about a year ago.
Me, I smoke aromatics while making breakfast for my daughter every morning, to keep her from smelling like she had been out bar hopping all night. There are no laws yet in Alabama concerning this, but they keep discussing it.
It's hardly ever too cold to drive without the windows down, so I don't feel like I am a horrible person. Maybe I am. :
: They can also drive their own car nowadays.
Me, I smoke aromatics while making breakfast for my daughter every morning, to keep her from smelling like she had been out bar hopping all night. There are no laws yet in Alabama concerning this, but they keep discussing it.
It's hardly ever too cold to drive without the windows down, so I don't feel like I am a horrible person. Maybe I am. :
: They can also drive their own car nowadays.funny how the nanny state proponents always to seem to take a jab at the ones they purport to protect from themselves.
My mom drank bourbon and smoked while she was pregnant. My dad had a pipe in his jaw always. Oh and we weren't in child seats, etc. Trust me I'm doing fine.
Now do I do the same with my kids? Nope. Did some law make me? Nope. It's MY choice.
My mom drank bourbon and smoked while she was pregnant. My dad had a pipe in his jaw always. Oh and we weren't in child seats, etc. Trust me I'm doing fine.
Now do I do the same with my kids? Nope. Did some law make me? Nope. It's MY choice.
Call,
I'm far from a liberal and speak out against nanny state directives and laws very often, The law that bans smoking in an enclosed area with children present however is one of the few times they got it right. It is the essence of protecting the individual rights of someone that cannot speak for themselves.
I respectfully disagree that its YOUR choice
I'm far from a liberal and speak out against nanny state directives and laws very often, The law that bans smoking in an enclosed area with children present however is one of the few times they got it right. It is the essence of protecting the individual rights of someone that cannot speak for themselves.
I respectfully disagree that its YOUR choice
Looking at this through an addictive lens ie. cigarettes I can see that maybe the public needs to be directed to keep it away from their kids. I classify inhaled nicotine close to a class one narcotic. Drug laws sure as hell don't stop certain behavior around kids. The people who would adhere to these laws are probably sensible enough from the outset to not smoke around their kids in the first place
As far as the matter of a confined space, it is a matter of degrees. When I was a kid my parents smoked cigarettes which meant in our home, which was a confined space. It was a small house and after a couple people sat there for hours puffing away, there was a thick fog half way up the wall. Forward now to many cars and SUV's where the kids might sit two rows back and you're in the front seat sipping occasionally on a pipe with it barely burning and you crack the window open on the highway to draw the smoke out, you are blowing the smoke out the opening and you have the air exchange on. Laws ban smoking in the car but not in the home where the smoke might be 20-50X worse. Laws are no substitute for common sense.
Laws usually start out with good intentions, but smoking is a legal practice and rather than merely offer guidelines for people to try to watch their smoke around kids, especially younger ones, by making it a law that would criminalize a situation where there was almost no measurable smoke at all around your kids, you have also opened the gateway to the next real step, coming after and banning smoking in your house altogether.
Laws usually start out with good intentions, but smoking is a legal practice and rather than merely offer guidelines for people to try to watch their smoke around kids, especially younger ones, by making it a law that would criminalize a situation where there was almost no measurable smoke at all around your kids, you have also opened the gateway to the next real step, coming after and banning smoking in your house altogether.
I only smoke in my car on the way to work, a beater that I intend to scrap once enough parts fall off. I don't smoke in the family car since I want to preserve whatever resale value it might have. The kids (still in carseats) only ride in the family car, so I won't encounter this situation until they're much older. However, I'll still add my vote to abstaining while the kids are in the car. Not because of nanny-state influence, but because I think it's what's right for me and my family.
The only exception I can envision is if they are older and ask me to smoke since they like the smell. Maybe it's just a pipe dream, (pun intended) but a dad can dream.
The only exception I can envision is if they are older and ask me to smoke since they like the smell. Maybe it's just a pipe dream, (pun intended) but a dad can dream.
Maybe not the greatest analogy, but I'll liken the laws on smoking in enclosed areas to locks on our doors...they are designed to keep honest people out.
There is certainly legitimacy to your argument of degrees. Smoking in a car with the windows open is certainly not as bad as with the windows closed. But how do we determine the amount? Do you keep the window half open for one smoker and fully open for two? What about the guy that just barely keeps his pipe lit with wisps of smoke as opposed to a cigar guy that blows out billows of smoke? The reality is that you're visible in your car and you're in the public eye, and that, in my opinion makes you subject to the law.
As far as your own home goes, I believe that the US constitution as well as the Canadian charter of rights protects us from intrusion in our homes. It's a bit of a conundrum in that it both protects and infringes on certain individual's rights, but its still better than any other system.
I'll close with another "cliche". Smoking is definitely legal but, just because you have the right to do something, it does not make it the right thing to do.
I have yet to meet a pipe smoker that is not a reasonable person when it comes to these matters, but its also important to have an open discussion and allow all views to be heard. Lets keep talking
There is certainly legitimacy to your argument of degrees. Smoking in a car with the windows open is certainly not as bad as with the windows closed. But how do we determine the amount? Do you keep the window half open for one smoker and fully open for two? What about the guy that just barely keeps his pipe lit with wisps of smoke as opposed to a cigar guy that blows out billows of smoke? The reality is that you're visible in your car and you're in the public eye, and that, in my opinion makes you subject to the law.
As far as your own home goes, I believe that the US constitution as well as the Canadian charter of rights protects us from intrusion in our homes. It's a bit of a conundrum in that it both protects and infringes on certain individual's rights, but its still better than any other system.
I'll close with another "cliche". Smoking is definitely legal but, just because you have the right to do something, it does not make it the right thing to do.
I have yet to meet a pipe smoker that is not a reasonable person when it comes to these matters, but its also important to have an open discussion and allow all views to be heard. Lets keep talking
I dont smoke in "closed Areas" with kids. I would not preach to anyone who did, but for me I just dont. But my garage is my space and if they come in there while I'm smoking, then shame on them. And I smoke outside in front of them, even let them blow on the pipe once and awhile. I dont shelter them like the little snowflakes either though.
I smoke in the car on my hour-each-way commute, it's the family car, the window's cracked to draw the smoke, there's little to no lingering smell (as judged by my wife's fickle nose, who would kibosh the matter were there more than a trace).
Never with the kids in the car, and not around the kids in general.
Family walk, or checking the mail? Absolutely (though less than half the time if wife is present).
Do the kids know I smoke? Yes. They are curious creatures and I am happy to educate them between the difference of a hobby (pips/cigars) and a habit (cigarettes). I find if I treat it like something to be ashamed of, it'll gain a forbidden appeal, but to casually acknowledge it makes it mundane.
It's all up to moderation and each individual and family dynamics. You do what works for you and the kids.
Never with the kids in the car, and not around the kids in general.
Family walk, or checking the mail? Absolutely (though less than half the time if wife is present).
Do the kids know I smoke? Yes. They are curious creatures and I am happy to educate them between the difference of a hobby (pips/cigars) and a habit (cigarettes). I find if I treat it like something to be ashamed of, it'll gain a forbidden appeal, but to casually acknowledge it makes it mundane.
It's all up to moderation and each individual and family dynamics. You do what works for you and the kids.
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