to think this Mother should be ashamed of herself?

[MrsMoosickle]

AIBU? Saw Mum push her DS ( about 1) to the smokers corner area outside my local Tesco. Light up and enjot a good ole chinwag with her smoker friends. Baby in buggy under a fug of cigarette smoke.

20 mins later see same Mother administer an asthma inhaler through a plasic tube thing to same DS in the Coffee Shop. FFS, has the world gone mad?

No Pixie, I didn't say that I care more about litter on the ground than the health of my baby...what a bizarre and extreme interpretation of my post that was.

My point was that I don't think that my inhaling a bit of secondary smoke mixed in with air, from someone standing next to me at the bustop will do me, or my baby in utero, any harm. I don't intend to dedicate my life to standing next to people smoking outdoors, so I expect I, and my baby, will be fine!

Not judgy, IMO all a bit hysterical. Is this Tesco smoking area enclosed so as to enable babies to choke, or are we really talking about a mum and her mates having a fag outside?

Wah Wah....I'm talking about a mum and her 5 mates all puff puffing away in a smoking corner with the baby in the middle of all the secondary fug! IMO that's bad enough...but to add insult to injury the baby boy has some kind of breathing disorder and is supported by an inhaler ( later administered indoors)

I think her behaviour is selfish and downright irresponsible.

I saw a mum smoking with her small child strapped into a wheelchair outside of the local cancer section of my hospital, as the little girl had no hair, she was probably seriously ill, but still needed to be brought outside for her mum and the woman who was smoking with her mum to expose her to yet more cancer causing chemicals ( especially as they were next to a bus termius, the diesel fumes alone would be bad) and holding the childs hand whilst doing so.

I really had to stop myself from saying anything, but its nice to know other people feel the same, I'm in no way a perfect mum, but couldn't help judging her.

mixedraceparents - I echo what cupcakesandbunting said.

One can never be too harsh with scum like this.

It's the "understanding" approach that you advocate that is responsible for this bollox situation.

Any decent human being can see that the behaviour so described is no way in which to bring up a child.

Stop allowing other people's children to go without the decent upbringing you wish for your own children.

I feel that you are speaking sense, Chochosan :).
I wouldn't feel at the woman in OP's story ("she should be ashamed of herself"), I'd feel just :( that she can't do better for herself and her child.

Is that the new fashion? Getting outraged over the shortcomings of others? I seem to hear so much of it on MN :(.

It's not so much a short coming though ragged, it's an active choice she's made. She's perfectly capable of not smoking around her already ill child (wouldn't be suprised if his breathing problems were caused by her smoking whilst pg! - an assumption I know, but plausible. She chooses to not care about his health enough to not do so.

I've never been judgey about other people's parenting (usually envious!) but with something like this she most certainly should be judged!

I don't perceive it that way; I think she's incapable of realising the cause and effect. Maybe because both (cigs with mates and child asthma) are such normal sorts of things in her life, she's not figuring out that they aren't simply explained away as "what usually happens". I don't see evidence that she doesn't care, just evidence that she's not juggling conflicting demands very well, and that could be because of all sorts of things.