I’m sitting here in silence. The only sounds I hear are the water swooshing through the filters in the fish tanks and the tapping of the keys on my keyboard as I type. Lee’s at softball practice. They are practicing at a park with a playground so he took the kids with him. They were gone by the time I got home from work so I’ve been sitting here in complete silence for over an hour. Silence is such a rare commodity in my life so I like to take advantage of it when it happens. No rushing around. No laundry. No cooking. No nagging. Just sitting here quiet. It’s been so nice.

After about forty-five minutes I got bored staring at the fish tank so I decided to finally look through the Parenting magazine I got in the mail about two weeks ago, but haven’t found time to read. As I was thumbing through the pages I came across the Mom Debate. This month’s question is:

Should it be illegal for parents to smoke at home if they have a baby?

More than 1,500 readers responded. 67% said yes. 33% said no. I was a little shocked by this. On one hand we’re blowing cancerous smoke in to our babies faces. But on the other hand we’re letting government control our lives. It’s really a double edged sword. I figured it would at least be a little more 50/50.

I don’t smoke. Other than the couple of puffs I choked down in high school while trying to be cool, I’ve never smoked. I always choose the non-smoking section of a restaurant, even if the wait is longer. I rarely go to the bar because I can’t stand the smoke. And I won’t allow people to smoke in my house or in my car. This is partly because I don’t want smoke around my children and partly because I have asthma and smoke makes it so my chest clenches on to my heart and won’t let go [which is rather uncomfortable]. Plus I’ve lost a grandma, a grandpa and and an aunt to lung cancer and I’ll be damned if I lose another relative. So I guess you can say I’m somewhat anti-smoking.

But I’m also anti-government-getting-all-up-in-my-business. Government’s already getting a little too close for comfort if you ask me. They tell us who we can marry. They’re hanging out in our cars. They force grown adults to wear seatbelts and helmets. [Are adults not capable of making that decision on their own? Isn't that part of natural selection. The stupid make bad decisions and pay for it. The smart survive.] There are some cases where laws are very important [like say murder] and there are other times where I’d just like government to leave me the hell alone.

However, in this case we’re talking about kids. Back to the seatbelt example, I think it’s stupid that government forces adults to wear seatbelts. But I’m ok with the law that requires kids to be belted. The problem is some parents are just too stupid to make good decision for their kids so somebody has to step in and help. According to the American Lung Association, “Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 430 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually.” That’s 430 kids each year that would still be on this Earth, running through sprinklers, flashing toothy grins and telling their moms they loved them if people would have just kept their toxic smoke away from them. We’ve put labels on packages. We see TV ads with crying babies and people smoking through a hole in their neck. We know secondhand smoke contains things like formaldehyde, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. But still parents smoke in the presence of their children. We’ve tried everything we can think of aside from making it illegal and still some parents are choosing to put their children in danger. So maybe making it a law is needed. I don’t know.

So I guess I’m in that 67% “yes” vote. But I did enjoy some of the comments on the “no” side. For example,

I wonder why it’s okay to bash smokers but no one ever bashes the moms who drink around their children.

Well, Jennifer from Miami, it’s ok to bash smokers because secondhand smoke kills and puts your children in danger of respiratory disease, asthma, cancer and death. Even when you smoke in moderation. You may choose to kill yourself that way, but your child should have the choice. Drinking in moderation does not [usually] put a child in danger [unless she then gets behind the wheel of a car]. And if a mother is smashed while taking care of her kids then you better believe we bash her. Have you read a tabloid recently? Hello, Britney Spears is getting all kinds of bashing.

“What’s next? Making formula illegal because breast milk is best?”

Oh, Trisha from IL. Why so dramatic? Are you seriously comparing the cyanide filled smoke of cigarettes with formula? Let’s think this one through. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of toxic or carcinogenic chemicals. True, breast milk is best. But formula [especially the ones on the market these days] is still a very good and healthy alternative. I’m no scientist, but I have yet to see a report stating formula causes cancer. Plus a baby has to eat and some mothers physically cannot breastfeed. However, other than addiction, I’m unaware of any medical reasons making it so a person physically must smoke. And if you are addicted you can take your smoking butt outside. [Get it? Smoking butt? Like your rear end butt AND the cigarette butt. Ok, well I thought it was funny.]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 8:46 pm and is filed under In my humble opinion. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.