Parents smoking weed at a children's party

[CandODad]

So, I hire out a piece of party equipment to children's parties and since it's worth a considerable amount of money intend not to leave the place it's beong used at. I don't need to be with it so I tend to just sit in the van where I know I can see should it "need moving"

The window is open slightly so the van doesn't steam up. Am I the only one shocked by the fact there are at least eight parents at this party that seem to openly smoking weed out in the car park while a seven year olds birthday party goes on inside (one parent of which is the dad of the party child) and children are popping out now and again to talk to parents etc?

What nonsense!

I agree that having a smoke does not equate to being off your tits, in the same way that having a glass of wine does not make you smashed.

Some laws are clearly in place for the benefit of society, which is great. But some clearly aren't. I don't smoke weed

But if I did then how would that be harmful to others?

I'm sure it was illegal until recently for gay men to have sex under 18, rather than 16 as it is for everyone else. So you'd happily have condemned a gay couple of 16 having sex? And you'd have happily allowed a husband to rape a wife before 1991, because what you're basically saying is that she would be free to campaign against the law but not to defend herself against her husband's legal right to rape her. Coz if it's legal it must be right??

The parents could have been each eating 10 big macs, and that would be more acceptable than smoking a joint, because hamburgers are legal?

Legality and morality don't go hand in hand.

It's just so Jeremy Kyle, having a smoke outside a children's party. Conjures up an image of really rough people. Not that all walks of life don't smoke weed, they do, but most could control themselves during a kids party.

For that reason alone, YANBU.

Oh and its not addictive either, just lovely!

I think the fact that the people can't go to a children's birthday party of a 7 year old without their joints outside tells you that it is indeed addictive, or dependence forming in lots of people. Now, they are probably addicted to the nicotine, and if smoking joints with tobacco or even on their own, are running the same risks of premature death/morbidity as cigarette smokers. I have met plenty of highly dependent cannabis smokers- it's very easy to tell you are one, because the idea of going a few evenings, or going out in the day to children's events without a joint isn't worrying or troublesome to you.

I think it's incredibly bad manners if nothing else to smoke anything at a children's birthday party, weed I would remove my children from the party because I would consider it like heavy daytime drinking around children, just utterly inappropriate. What people do in their own homes in the evening is fine, no objection to use there or medicinal use for that matter, although given the risks of cancer, heart disease of smoking anything (cannabis doesn't make you immune to carbon monoxide!) I would go with consuming it in a less harmful fashion.

Well the people I know who would smoke it at a day time party are certainly not rough and prob never heard of JK!

Yes people are hypocrites. And ill informed. And a bit thick.

So we only obey the laws that we agree with now?
Not something I will be teaching my children.

No...like people with some degree of intelligence, we are aware that plenty of issues have grey areas, and teach our children to question and consider rather than dumbly accept, because everything in life is not black and white.

Would it have been ok to have come across a group of 8 or so parents having a beer round the back of the van?

Alcohol has become so mainstream, and so accepted and even, dare I say it, encouraged, that we forget it too is an addictive drug.

It is unlikely that they were all such addicts that they couldn't last a day without a joint and more likely that it is part of their social scene and method of chilling out and they were just doing that rather than drinking alcohol.

I'm all for people making their own choices once they appreciate the risks but smoking weed around young kids is totally irresponsible. Even doing it in a car-park outside the premises is not keeping it away from them adequately. I suspect such people are generally less discrete at home, not more.

It's a very poor lesson to be teaching kids that although some things are patently illegal the parents are the ones who get to choose which laws they decide to adhere to and those which they do not. What sort of example is that? Confusing at best. Bloody dangerous at worst.

I completely agree with you that heavy alcohol consumption is normalized and probably more worrying from a public health point of view than a small amount of cannabis use although as I say, given most people are still smoking it and given what we know about smoking risks, this makes cannabis smoking very dangerous and I expect an epidemic of old style smoking cancers/deaths amongst daily cannabis smokers quite soon.

The saddest thing for me about this is that the dad of the birthday child wasn't blowing up balloons, helping with the kids, having fun, he was out the back puffing a joint in the car park. At my children's birthdays I am always crazy busy and wouldn't have time for that- it's just hectic from start to finish. What's the betting his wife was in there doing everything while he was puffing out the back? I really think if you can't go 2/3 hours without a joint at a kid's party (where many of the children's parents won't want their children to see smoking/be around smoky people/see people doing illegal things) then chances are, it's become a bit too important in your life. I would think the same of someone distributing tinnies out the back of a car park when a kid's party is going on, it's just very inappropriate and that would make me wonder about the mind-set of those parents.

The fact they were in the car park doesn't necessarily suggest people were definitely going to drug drive! What a bizarre leap of logic.

Love this thread. So much pearl clutching. Also loving your work, Jolleigh.

Some of you would have had a blast in Hitler's Germany. I know! Godwin's Law. And on Remembrance Sunday too.

No one here ever ever breaks the speed limit, right?

If you do have a beer or glass of wine at a kids' party, does that make you an alcoholic? You know, because you can't control yourself for that whole two hours?

I agree that people can make their own choices, but IMO smoking weed at a children's party is simply ill timed and inappropriate, and not a great role model.

Comparing it to different laws about abortion and homosexuality being made legal is not a good analogy IMO.

I might not agree with some of the speed limits set on some roads, but I still adhere to them because I am one of those boring people that doesn't stick two fingers up to the laws of the land.

Bunbaker, Sheffield must have changed a bit since I was there 30 years ago - there were plenty of cannabis smokers then, though it was resin rather than weed.

Why not a good analogy, Bunbaker? Because homosexuality/abortion are obviously ok, while cannabis is obviously wrong? Until it's legalised, of course, when it becomes fine overnight

One of the mums of the kids who went to school with ds, was an alcoholic , fell down stairs drunk one day and broke her neck ........she also often turned up to kids parties drunk, a working mum in her 40s, I would question how under control these habits are to have so little self awareness at a child's party.

I rarely go out in Sheffield at night, and when I do it is with work to a specific destination, so I don't bar hop and I don't see many other people other than work colleagues, so weed smoking isn't going to be prevalent where I am.

I occasionally go in to Sheffield during the day to meet a friend, and again I have never seen anyone smoke weed. (It was called dope in my day).

I can't explain it There. I just can't see the link. I think if cannabis was made legal tomorrow I would still feel that it was wrong (for me, I couldn't care less what other people do) whereas I have never felt that being gay/having an abortion was ever wrong.

Why thank you ThreMust .

Bunbaker the only reason abortion and homosexuality laws were even brought into this was to make a very valid point to those of you who think breaking the law is always wrong. The law is flawed but thankfully, it's also fairly fluid. As I have stated previously, there were times in this country when being gay was illegal, when having an abortion was illegal and when it was completely legal to rape your spouse.

Frankly, I find it very hard to believe there's anyone on this thread who a) agrees with all laws and b) has never broken the law.

I agree with your last points Jolleigh

It's not pearl clutching to think having weed out the back of a children's party in a car park is a) a bit skanky and b) inappropriate as it's visibly illegal. I would feel the same if someone was out the back distributing cans of lager, though, even though this is legal. I go to children's parties a lot, none of the people I know do this, we all sit and chat or drop and run. I would just think what type of people do this? I feel the same about heavy drinking at children's parties, just not the time or the place. Don't care what people do at home, but blatant flouting of drug laws outside in front of 7 year olds is wrong in my opinion- although we chat about whether these drug laws themselves are wrong in our house anyway. It is perfectly possible to think critically about laws whilst obeying them especially in front of other people's children/at day-time event out in public.

Bunbaker, it was dope in my day too

I agree Hair

I am bit at those who think it is normal to smoke dope at children's parties.

What about light drinking at children's parties?