Smoking outside cafés?

[PuntCuffin]

Took my boys out to a local country park this morning. Decided we would have lunch while we were there so got ourselves settled at an outside table at the park café. We had our dog with us (as did many other families) so could not have gone inside.

Halfway through our meal, another family sat at the neighbouring table and both adults proceeded to light up cigarettes. So, we ended up with smoke wafting across us. Both boys stopped eating pretty much immediately, and started saying they felt sick. (Yes, they are probably hypersensitive but, it was pretty grim.) I gave up on trying to convince them to finish their lunch and we left the area, as did another family who hadn't finished their meals either.

There were no ashtrays on the tables, so the café clearly don't endorse smoking there.

AIBU to think this is a) Fucking inconsiderate behaviour and b) to be amazed that it is legal to smoke round an area where people are eating, even if it is outside.

There was no where else to go. It has a Waitrose, a Costa, a newsagents, a Boots & a hairdressers. I felt faint and dizzy after I had finished shopping, I needed to sit down somewhere and have something to drink and eat before I got behind the wheel of my car.

I didn't want to ask the smoker to stop because I was by myself and felt vulnerable as a pregnant woman.

I would work on your self esteem if I were you...is it a first baby?

I love the outside smoking threads, they signal the start of spring/summer for me.
All the non smokers crawl outside, blinking their eyes at the sunlight and guess what - there are people smoking out there, as there have been throughout all the winter months
But hey, because it suits you now to venture outside, and just because you're convinced that your dc will drop dead at the faintest whiff of a distant fag, you expect smokers who are doing nothing illegal to kow-tow to your hysteria?
Nah, not going to happen. You've got legs, move if you don't like it.

It is a first baby. I'm generally a confident person, but I would have needed my husband there to make a point. I was feeling dizzy and sick as it was anyway, I was in no position to challenge a stranger.

It will be fine, good luck with it all, but the spring smoking thread is probably not for you

Because you felt vulnerable, does that mean you conflate smokers as bad people who would seek to meet a pregnant woman, and one who is clearly anxious, with aggression?

Why didn't you just ask them to blow their smoke the other way as your children were eating?
They would have got the hint, apologised and possibly stubbed out (in my experience that has been the case)
Not all smokers are inconsiderate arseholes.
If you had asked politely and they told you to feck off then fair point.
To be honest you must have been sat in some kind of wind trap for smoke outside to hang around your faces to the point you all felt sick

I'm also a non smoker

I'm not as repulsed by vaping, but it's better than tobacco. I still don't like inhaling/smelling stuff that has been in someone else's lungs/mouth/nose.

Seriously?
You do realize that you are breathing in other people's exhaled breath every time you enter a roomfull ofpeople, every time you walk past people in the street. Every time you are sat in a cafe. You are breathing in their breath. breath thats been inside their dirty, filthy stranger lungs!!!!
Just because you can't see the 'breath' doesn't mean it's not there.

Honestly, if I was smoking in your space (which I am legally entitled to do), and you told me that my smoking was upsetting you I would apologise and put my cigarette out. I might think you were a touch odd but I would never be hostile, or rude. Smokers aren't fucking monsters.

I don't see smokers as bad people at all. There are plenty of smokers who have posted in this thread that said they are considerate and wouldn't have done it in that situation.

Smokers who choose to smoke next to pregnant women, children & people who are eating are carless, thoughtless & selfish.

OK Trifle, you were enjoying a lovely view from your seat outside the café. It's a beautiful sunny day and it had been so peaceful while you sipped your coffee, nibbled your pannini and puffed on your cig. Now all you can here is an annoying doof doof doof and it's giving you a headache. You're still finishing your food. Do you really not say anything? Do you not think this hypothetical music listener to be inconsiderate? You were there first. Could they not have asked first? This person isn't even eating or drinking and could have sat anywhere else.

Ok I'm a nice person but id rather if I was eating out that there were no children near me, I don't care if little araminta eats her artisan bruschetta with sun blushed tomato, I generally just want to drink my coffee and have a ciggie in blessed peace as I have 3 little moppets of my very own and time alone is more precious than a gold plated Gerard butler!
Should it be a pub garden enough said....

All I know is that since smoking in pubs was outlawed.. a hell of a lot of pubs have closed and many villages and communities no longer have a pub

My father in law actually had to get rid of his business because of the smoking ban. He had one of those little village pubs where you occasinally made a mint on a weekend but the regulars propped up the bar mainly. And most of his regulars were OAPs who would sit with pints/whiskeys smoking. I used to help with the accounts and I was so shocked to see the effect it had. The month the ban came in his profits were down about 30%. Within 3 months he had taken a 55% hit overall. I do understand why the ban came in but it was sad to see his business crumble and in turn, those OAPs losing what was probably their only socializing time.

However it was nice not having to clean ashtrays at the end of a shift. Ashtrays that nearly always had chewing gum stuck all over them...ugh.

Would still have rather kept cleaning them and had an actual job though :S

Smokers who choose to smoke next to pregnant women, children & people who are eating are carless, thoughtless & selfish

I wouldn't say its always (or even...mainly) chosing to smoke next to a pregnant woman. Its most likely they don't even realise you are there tbh, or do not realise you are pregnant. Many people have not much awareness of their surroundings, and if they did eyeball everyone to see if they were pregnant then there would be threads about smokers looking at people funny

Today I was sat in a cafe (not smoking) surrounded by people and I couldn't for the life of me tell you anything about the people who were there except me and DH [embarassed]

Far too much preciousness on here
I had my dc years before the smoking ban, as did thousands of other parents.
Guess what, my dc have grown up to be healthy, active adults. They were exposed to far more cigarette smoke than the tiny amount that posters become hysterical about on here.
They are fine.

Well said Gowgirl
Other people's toddlers versus cigarette smoke. No contest for me I'm afraid!

I think all of these mewling bairns who keel over puking at a hint of tobacco smoke should get their parents to have them referred to a paediatrician as a matter of urgency as there is clearly something amiss.

Is there something wrong with me when I say I'm looking forward to the annual debate about Trick or Treat? It's a lot cheaper than buying a printed Calendar

Would probably work as well, the threads are like clockwork

I am visibly pregnant

You kept that one quiet didn't you?

I sat with 2 vapers tonight, it was constant. I think I prefer fags. At least you're done for a bit.

All these pubs that got shut down were generally full of old drunk blokes trying to escape theur wives and family life. Can't say I'm sorry to see them go to be honest. They weren't really a massive boost for society.

Urgh this thread annoys me. Farting is legal too just like alcohol, vapes and smoking. It's my choice to fart or not. Does that mean I can trump all day around you and force you to inhale my farts?! It's just rude!

I am sorry for your digestive problem. Have you seen a doctor?

Outside is not 'the smoking area'. Yes some pubs/clubs have 'smoking areas' outside, where a smoke hating non smoker would be mad to stand, but cafe tables outside are not a 'smoking area'. Smoking is a grim habit, and smoke in your face is annoying. That's why you see smokers have a drag and then hold their fag away from them so the wind blows the smoke away, and into somebody else's face!

Oh it's not a problem. It's my right... it is legal and it's my "personal choice".