Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that people have the right to smoke without being villified as if they were using cocaine?

278 replies

stitch · 01/06/2008 22:48

i'm a non smoker. make that a never smoker, apart form one incident when i was 13 and had a huge coughing fit.
i am really really shocked at how people are reacting towards people smoking. it is not the worst thing in the world, and i just feel really uncomfortable athow they are making smokers out to be pariahs.

OP posts:
hunkermunker · 02/06/2008 00:21

Only if you keep your vest on, Prunester

DirtySexyMummy · 02/06/2008 00:21

I have no problem with you thinking smoking is stupid. It is a fair opinion, that you are entitled to.

However, I do not appreciate being referred to as 'stupid', as I most certainly am not.

Pruners · 02/06/2008 00:22

Message withdrawn

hunkermunker · 02/06/2008 00:22

So in your measured, considered opinion, you've made a sensible decision to smoke and continue to do so? And you admit that smoking is something that can be called stupid?

And yet you're not stupid for doing it?

Hokay.

hunkermunker · 02/06/2008 00:23

Pruuuuuni! [salivates]

TheFallenMadonna · 02/06/2008 00:23

How do you rationalise smoking? In terms of enjoyment versus health effects?

ravenAK · 02/06/2008 00:24

Yes it IS stupid.

You can argue that it's your own business if you choose to indulge in the stupid habit of your choice, but it makes you reek, it costs a fortune, it gives you a grim hacking cough, it annoys other people more than you will ever comprehend as a current smoker. Oh & ultimately it kills you.

Your legitimate right to carry on with your stupid habit? Absolutely. But it is stupid.

TheHedgeWitch · 02/06/2008 00:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Califrau · 02/06/2008 00:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

spanky1981 · 02/06/2008 00:25

I guess people smoke because they want to smoke.
Like anything else, does it need justification?
Or is it another thing to feel superior about?

How about a smoking, breastfeeding recycler?
Are they still stupid?

hunkermunker · 02/06/2008 00:26

THW, I smoked for ten years. Heavily. Between 20 and 40 a day.

Don't tell me I don't know what it's like, please.

PInkyminkyohnooo · 02/06/2008 00:26

DSM they could stop smoking? I'm sure the bar staff aren't mad on the working environment out there, either.

DirtySexyMummy · 02/06/2008 00:26

I started smoking when I was 13. So no, I did not make a sensible decision to smoke. However, I have made the decision not to try to stop. There are more important things in my life that I would rather concentrate on, to be honest.

I made a decision to stop when I was pregnant, and quit my job as it involved being in a smoky atmosphere. However, I wanted to smoke every day. But I didn't. After I had finished BFing, I made the decision to start smoking again. I also decided then I would not smoke around DS nor would I smoke in the house, or allow anyone else to.

I believe that if I was stupid, I would not have made such decisions. I think people who smoke during pregnancy are stupid. I do not think I am stupid.

hunkermunker · 02/06/2008 00:27

Jeez, am I in an alternate dimension?

Smoking's a really stupid thing to do.

Doesn't matter if you're Mother Teresa on the side, your fag habit is not brainy.

ravenAK · 02/06/2008 00:27

Intelligent people do stupid things every day. Saying smoking is stupid isn't the same as saying a particular smoker is stupid...

Molesworth · 02/06/2008 00:28

If this were about other types of addiction, would the word "stupid" be bandied about quite so readily, I wonder? Maybe it would.

I smoke. I'm addicted to cigarettes. It's not rational at all, and, if I could wake up tomorrow and magically be a non-smoker, I would. I don't think it's helpful to call smokers "stupid". Of course it's stupid, but smoking isn't a rational decision: it's a powerful addiction.

TheFallenMadonna · 02/06/2008 00:28

Well, I was assuming that somebody who wasn't stupid would have given it some thought. Given the overwhelming and well-publicised evidence that smoking is really, really bad for your health.

spanky1981 · 02/06/2008 00:28

I am an ex-smoker and it has definitely affected my health.
However, I would feel hypocritical now looking down on smokers because I understand why I did it

hunkermunker · 02/06/2008 00:29

You make the decision to smoke every day though, DSM.

I started when I was 12. I did it for ten years, as I say, heavily.

It would cost me about £70 a week to smoke as much as I did back then, in fact.

And if setting fire to money's not stupid...

TheHedgeWitch · 02/06/2008 00:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

TheWoman · 02/06/2008 00:29

I remember being a 21-year old, 30-a-day smoker, who got bronchitis and had to be sent 300 miles home from university by taxi so my mother could care for me.

And as I puked my guts up in the bathroom, I was thinking how I could sneak out of the house and have a cigarette.

I think back to that and see myself as an addicted fool.

At the time I just considered myself to someone who enjoyed smoking.

DirtySexyMummy · 02/06/2008 00:30

Pinky - with all due respect is is outdoors. Smokers now do not smoke indoors, so surely non smokers could not moan about them smoking outdoors.

Raven - I don't have a hacking cough. I did get annoyed by smokers when I was pregnant, so I do understand. However, I would never tell someone not to do something because it irritates me. I am not that self-centred.

Oh, and yeah, it costs a fortune.. of my money which I earn. So why the hell anyone cares about the cost is beyond me.

hunkermunker · 02/06/2008 00:30

Dunno anything about other forms of addiction, so don't feel justified to talk about them being stupid.

Do know about smoking and quitting though.

spanky1981 · 02/06/2008 00:30

Actually, most smokers have given up and started again many times.
Can we stop discussing whether it's stupid or not?
Doesn't seem to serve any purpose

TheWoman · 02/06/2008 00:31

to be