Would you report someone for smoking with their child in the car?

[JigglyTuff]

Just walked past a woman waiting in her car for infant school gates to open. There was a child in the front seat. She was blowing her smoke out the window and I looked round because I could smell it and wondered where it was coming from.

Or should I just mind my own business?

Lana - I don't know what taking your child to the pub has got to do with anything.

I was more musing about what point you do something versus turning a blind eye.

I wouldn't report TBH. My DH has been a social worker for nearly 30 years and they have very serious cases they barely have time for, and struggle to act on, because of the red tape and paperwork involved. Likewise, the police have more serious crimes to contend with.

MsJames

Cars pump out as many lethal toxins as cigarettes, in London alone they think 40,000 deaths a year are directly related to traffic pollution.

Over 1,700 people died in car accidents last year alone, so yeah they are fucking dangerous.

If the police and social services are stretched, then the least they could do is to contact the school. School nurses talk to parents of overweight children. I can't see why they wouldn't be able to support a mother to quit smoking who was caught smoking infront of their child in a car.

FWIW I was that child in the back of the car coughing and saying 'Daddy, I can't breathe' I would have loved for someone to put a stop to it.My sisters and I all have problems with allergies and some mild breathing issues.

Yes people don't smoke in pubs anymore. The reason for the new law about smoking in cars is that you're forcing someone within a very small space to breathe it in.

Actually, where I live the Police would be glad of something to distract them from moving awol cows off the road.

Not that that's the point. Police time management is their own business. Being a good citizen is mine. I'm glad most people don't have your 'walk on by' attitude.

I'm a smoker, I don't smoke with my kids in the car. But i wouldn't report someone else for doing smoking a fag out of their car window,no.

Lots of parents make shit decisions when it comes to their children's health, shit food, constant screens, no teeth brushing. Its not up to me to police them all.

No, the above aren't illegal, but I'm not one of the.... Its illegal !!! Screeching squad.

You'd need proof OP, for the police to do anything.

Even then, I'm not sure they'd have the time and resources to deal with it.

I wouldn't advise SS at all, but if she's outside school and you see it again-yes I would tell the local PCSO or ask school to add it onto the newsletter.
It's shit behaviour and illegal.
I too was the kid in the back of the car fucking choking. I smoked for many years but never with kids in the car.

So what are you saying Lana? That because there are toxic pollutions we can't do anything about, we may as well not bother to stop exposure to the ones we can do something about?

A lot of people who get lung cancer are smokers.

Aren't there community police officers that could deal with it if the police are stretched, anyway? I guess it depends where you live. Regardless, it needs to be reported by some avenue.

If the police and social services are stretched, then the least they could do is to contact the school. School nurses talk to parents of overweight children. I can't see why they wouldn't be able to support a mother to quit smoking who was caught smoking infront of their child in a car.

Why are you making the assumption, that she wants to quit smoking?

I wouldn't report to the police, and I suspect SS wouldn't do anything. If it was outside a school or a nursery and I knew the woman was a parent there I might mention it to the school/nursery.

I know smoking around children isn't good, but there's some real hysteria on this thread. I grew up in the era when absolutely everyone smoked, everywhere all the time. I'm not going to say it hasn't done me any harm as I suffered from recurrent chest infections as a child, but to suggest it's akin to abuse is insulting to actual victims of child abuse.

WorraLiberty, I'm not making an assumption, but if you're so desperate to smoke that you do it in the car with your child present, when you're aware it's illegal, perhaps it's time to get your priorities in check!

I'm not defending the mother.

I don't think it's right at all to smoke in a car/house whatever with kids about

But being related to SW, I can tell you first hand that they absolutely DO NOT HAVE FUCKING TIME TO DEAL WITH HYSTERICAL JUDGEY PANTS STUFF- WHEN CHILDREN ARE FUCKING DYING FROM NEGLECT.

On the scale of things she deals with on a day to day basis, smoking in a car is so far down the fucking list it's not even on it.

Ditto the police.

So you don't see why the school nurse can't support someone to give up smoking, when they haven't actually asked for support in giving up smoking?

Do you know how underfunded school budgets are?

Smokers are getting a tough time on mumsnet at the moment .

So did I Windward. And it was an era when child abuse was pretty much ignored as you well know so not sure that argument holds much water.

Lana - not sure if that comment is directly at me but I'm most certainly not hysterical. I am judging though, yes. That's how things change in society, by things becoming socially unacceptable.

Good god, Lana! Calm down, ffs!

Actually, where I live the Police would be glad of something to distract them from moving awol cows off the road.

Ah that explains it.

Because here in the real fucking world, my local police force are too busy dealing with everything from domestic abuse, violent crime, drug abuse, robberies, muggings and road accidents to even send a PCSO to something like this, and it's not even a large town.

Fuck me, I've seen some shrill hysteria on many an Aibu thread but this is taking the proverbial

I'm an ex-smoker and I now find fag smoke to be absolutely vile. But I wouldn't report some mother to our over stretched and under funded police or SS for smoking in her static car and blowing the smoke out of the window! I might consider it if she was actually driving at the time as she wouldn't have one of her hands properly on the steering wheel and I think that's far more dangerous!

Wait a minute, we're saying that the police, social services and the school are too overstretched to deal with a mother who has illegally smoked infront of her child in a car?

Get the registration down, report it to the police online, and let them prioritise it.

I reported someone speeding on a motorbike around a woodland. I reported people once dogging in the woods. Perhaps some of you think that's unreasonable, but I certainly do not.

Wow! Just wow!

I don't agree with smoking full stop, think it's a disgusting, expensive, smelly habit but 'take a photo and report to the police'?? Do you honestly think the police or social services would have the time to deal with stuff like this??

But Lana -I'm asking genuinely, if these 'low level' laws being broken i.e: phone use driving / smoking with kids in the car should be ignored, where do we draw the line of doing nothing?
Both have been proven repeatedly to cause harm and or risk to others, just because far worse terrible heinous crimes are being committed-does this mean we should ignore these?