to hoik up my judgey pants at the parents smoking in the kids play area...

[RachelHRD]

Seriously do people really think it's acceptable to smoke in a children's playground?

She came in smoking and he is now sat on a bench puffing away on a roll up...

I'd hoped that the kids would be free from inhaling toxic smoke here!!

[scarlettsmummy2]

I don't think there should be smoking in playgrounds. I can honestly say that my four year old has no concept of smoking as no one in our social group or families smokes, and as restaurants are now smoke free she has never been around strangers smoking.

[FishfingersAreOK]

Our local park has recently been refurbished. Including signs saying not to smoke in front of young minds and lungs.

I agree. I hate it.

[unlucky83]

Heffa - not saying a shift change in attitude towards smoking is a bad thing -
Not saying that people should smoke on play parks..
What I am saying that if you make it too illicit you will make it attractive to the very part of the population that we really don't want to start smoking ...
A tiny whiff of smoke as a one off is not going to do (most) DCs any harm ... less harm than lots of other things that they breathe in ...and seeing people looking anything but cool smoking is also good thing...
Hysteria about it is not - look at the talk to Frank about other drugs - tell them the absolute truth ... you tell teenagers that a single snort of coke is going to kill them - they see that it doesn't - so they don't believe the facts ...if that makes sense...
Tell them that a single whiff of smoke is going to hurt them ....and then they see/hear about a 90 yo who smokes 40 a day....and they will find the facts less hard to believe...

[BaldHedgehog]

I'm not bothered about smoking,it's cig butts on the ground that drive me insane.DS is 15mo and 1st thing he'll pick up from the ground will be fag end.If he puts it into his mouth...

Think people,think(and I say that as an ex smoker),there's a bin at the fence, just move your lazy arse

[hazeyjane]

I was pushing ds in a swing last week, and a man came over to talk to the woman next to me who was pushing her dd. The man was smoking and so I hoiked ds out. Now I think about it, and read this thread, I am annoyed that I didn't say something to him, because it is a kid's play area, of course people shouldn't smoke!

[Thurlow]

I'm a smoker. I think some of the concerns people have about second-hand smoke is sometimes OTT. My toddler sees me smoke sometimes, I have smoked in the garden when she's playing for example.

But I still think the OP is NBU. It's a kids play park, FGS. At least stand outside if you're desperate. Smoke on the way there if you must.

It is my decision about how I am with my DC. I wouldn't inflict my choice of smoking and doing it occasionally around my DC on anyone else's DC.

[dogindisguise]

I hate smoking, especially around children. Some of the play areas I go to have no-smoking signs on the gate at the entrance - not that anyone takes much notice of them, as there are usually plenty of beer bottles around.

[HeffalumpTheFlump]

I'm an ex smoker since falling pregnant. My only problem with people smoking near me now is the possible effects on my unborn baby. For this reason I can completely see where the op is coming from. I am not at all bothered by smokers smoking in open areas, but an area specifically for children is a bit different in my eyes. I wouldn't want my little girl to be breathing it in while she was playing.

It really interests me that there is often quite a lot of hostility on here towards people who do not like cigarette smoke. A pp said, "Gosh The anti smoking campaign has worked hasn't it" as if that is a bad thing and that baffles me to be honest. Surely it is a very good thing that public opinion of a cancer causing habit is changing to be in general more negative?

I would hope that none of the posters who think the op is bu would want their children to start smoking, and it's this shift in attitude which will hopefully stop them from doing so. I can't see why it would be seen as a bad thing to view smoking as unpleasant.

[Sirzy]

My sons asthma has been triggered by walking behind someone smoking for just a very short while (until we were able to detour). Unfortunately smoke is one of the triggers he is very sensitive too which is a pain as it is so hard to avoid but it would be nice if play grounds were a safe place1

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

Honestly I don't know probably not but I don't want to find out what the limits are tbh. We are lucky she hasn't been hospitalised in three years now and as the months go by it seems to be getting better, but not a day goes past where I don't think of what the safest bus to get would be so we weren't waiting to long by roads or in the station, which stop would be best and cleaner or weigh up times and ways to go as to minimise exposure i know that sounds crazy and most of it is unavoidable. But sometimes it would just be nice to be able to take my kids out to somewhere like a park for some fresh air and exercise and not be confronted with it. Is that really so unreasonable of me to think that a park should be clean.

[Celadorthepinksequineddragon]

HeySoulSister, I completely see your point re obesity but you've gone off on a tangent. The OP hasn't mentioned ice cream in any context.

The difference is that parents can exercise a choice to give their child an ice cream or not - they can't with second hand smoke, that element of choice is taken from them.

Never heard of any ill effects from inhalation of second hand ice cream either .

[HeySoulSister]

The ice cream vans outside schools??

Well. The nhs suffers wirh smoking related illnesses AND weight related. I think these are the 2 biggest killers

Childhood obesity is rocketing

So why bother keeping your child away from second hand smoke if you are goin to stuff them with ice cream??

People don't smoke at school
But an ice cream van is acceptable?

[roseblanche]

I remember going to Disney in LA years ago. I acknowledged that it was a 'no smoking facility' apart from a very few designated areas. These areas were few and far between, i.e about 4 in the corners of the park. After 2 hours I found a 'designated area' Please bear in mind these are all OUTSIDE i.e in the fresh air areas. Bizzarely enough, all 4 areas (in the gazillion acre park) were just outside the loos...
So, having searched and found the one of only four areas where I am alloed to smoke, I eventually puffed on my gasper. I was immediately set upon by a family, who were sitting on the only bench in the only smoking area for miles. 'Gee I hope you aint gonna smoke here?' they cried. I sure am, said I. But ''we have a child with us' Well feck off then replied I.
So I have to seek out an area in which to smoke OUTSIDE and they want to be there first!!!

[RachelHRD]

schmee vehicles are a necessary evil in this day and age, log fires provide essential heat - what is necessary about smoking??

[unlucky83]

Wheres my caffeine - I sympathise I really do
But would your DC get an asthma attack from a single whiff?
I know someone -actually two people - with asthma who smoke occasionally -not the cleverest thing in the world -but there you go..
Actually my grandmother had asthma -and lived with my cigarette smoking grandad ...probably didn't do her any good -but she did outlive him.
Don't get me wrong I do think smoking is a stupid, disgusting habit ...but I am serious that I believe the biggest danger to our DCs is being too anti and hysterical about it ...

[RachelHRD]

So unlucky are you disputing the nunerous studies and medical evidence that smoking and second hand smoke cause cancer? It's rather different to the other examples you list and most people aren't wafting around cans of air freshener at the playground which is the point of my post.

I try and avoid unnecessary chemicals, keep away from heavy traffic areas as much as possible and take my kids to the park for fresh air and exercise - not to expose them to toxic pollutants from selfish people who are so addicted to nicotine they cant survive for half an hour without a fag.

Anyone who thinks smoking around kids is ok is seriously deluded. ....and probably a smoker!!!

[schmee]

Wuxiaplan - along with car drivers, people who have log fires, etc etc

[Wuxiapian]

YANBU, OP.

They are, after all, the most selfish people on the planet.

[schmee]

I would have felt the same as you OP and was really surprised to see someone smoking in our (relatively naice) playground the other day. I think it's just social conditioning though as it wasn't doing any real harm - certainly less than car fumes on the high street.

Where I used to live in a very naice area you would have got lynched for smoking in the playground, although it was the norm for mums to drink wine from about 4pm whether in the "child friendly" cafes by the playgrounds, or at each other's houses. Just the norms for that particular group.

And actually I think it was probably all a lot happier in the 70s when people didn't spend all their time trying to protect their children from every vice in the world. I'd love to be able to spark up a Silk Cut and tuck into a martini while the kids played rather than trying to wrangle them into bed early so that I can.

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

unlucky

My dd is asthmatic. Now we have worked really hard to keep her as healthy as possible. It' changed everything. We have fallen out with family in our bid to keep her safe from avoidable cigarette smoke. And its worked, she is sooo much better than she was but its not been easy. So yes maybe I am a bit hysterical but I would do anything to not go back to the days where nurses had to pin her down to administer medication. I realise its everywhere and I can't tell people what to do but I don't think it's unreasonable to hope to god that at a KIDS park people might be able to hold out for half an hour. It may seem like nothing to some but perhaps it's not been your child hospitalised with breathing difficulties and perhaps your lucky enough for it to not have to be a concern for you. Bit not everyone is that lucky.

[Boomba]

Someone sitting drinking a can of beer may not be pleasant to see

what?

[unlucky83]

Gosh The anti smoking campaign has worked hasn't it ...
Lots of people grew up where the parents smoked in the house, doctors smoked in the surgery, people smoked in the cinema, theatre, pub, shops, on buses, trains etc etc
If second hand smoke was sooooooo dangerous most people over 50 would be dead now - life expectancy wouldn't be increasing...(in fact didn't the oldest women in the world at one point - 123 yo I think... smoke!) The risk to your DC inhaling a whiff of smoke in a public place is absolutely miniscule...
If you are concerned about something so minor ...I guess you also don't take your children to bonfires/firework displays? Not go to/have BBQs?
None of those chimera things in the garden? no woodburner/real fire in your houses? Never allow your DC to go to a guide/scout camp where they cook on real fires and come home stinking...
Your energy would be better spent worrying about the chemicals you use around the home...air fresheners, 'lemon fresh' cleaning sprays, fabric conditioners/washing powders that boast their fragrance remains on the clothes for weeks...or is released when you move...(and not even mentioning traffic pollution...)
The biggest danger to DCs now is the fact that the attitude is so anti - if they decide to rebel at all they are likely to start smoking - seeing as that is likely soon to be considered more outrageous than a smack/crack habit!

[RachelHRD]

and morethan my pants are big for comfort not size so I won't be taking up smoking to lose weight - is that why you do it? A bit drastic to kill yourself to keep slim.......!

[pianodoodle]

But I don't see why the rest of us should have to put up with the smell and second hand smoke disturbing the fresh air we seek at a park

It doesn't have to be second hand you can always buy your own