My 20 month old daughter goes to her Grandma (my mum in law) once a week for the day whilst we’re at work. Now her Grandma smokes hamlet minatures (I know).
She’ll never smoke them inside when my daughter is there, but she does occasionally take her outside to play so she can have a fag, Also sometimes she’s blatantly just had a fag in the kitchen when we arrive in the morning.
Now I am an avid hater of smokers and get really angry, but I am yet to vent this on the mum-in-law.
Should I be worried? And should I say something? I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the childcare and she is really good with my daughter – it’s just the smoking (occasional as it may be) disgusts me.
When I was a kid everyone smoked. Everyone. My mum and dad, the milkman, the bloke in the shop, the bus driver, the passengers, the lollipop man, the teachers at school.
I work with nurses who remember having to put out their cigarettes before attending to patients …on the coronary care ward…..
I’d report her for smoking shit cigars myself. If she’s going to pass on secondary cancer which you obviously believe, then she might as well do it with a decent Cuban jobbie. 😉
I tend to agree with the above however my wife didn’t like my mum doing something similar so I asked her nicely (she does only babysit one morning a week though). She seemed to understand why I asked her to stop.
Although im an ex-smoker, when my son was born 4 years ago, I stopped smoking in the house, always went outside for a fag and he’s never seen me smoking.
I dont want him to breathe my smoke and I dont want him to see me smoking and think its acceptable later in life.
It really annoys me when i see these young mums swanning about fag in hand whilst pushing the baby in the pram. Clearly they dont GAS
i like all the “in my day” posters who are fooling themselves they arent “in my day” posters.
Its not that it may smell its teh fact your child will very quickly get used to the smell of cigarettes and may even become accustomed to nicotine. Ive never touched a fag in my life and never will but i can happily stand near smokers (as long as its not cigars) because ive always socialised with older people and generally they smoke.
I know people whoes family smoke and guess what? They smoke. They do drugs. They drink excessively and their life is going nowhere. People i know whoes families dont smoke are, in my experience, far more successful.
If it was my child i wouldnt let a smoker near them. Buy her some nicotine gum….
I’m sure our Health visitor stated that due to smoke etc clinging to clothes and hair etc they reccomended leaving 45 minutes between having a fag and handling a baby!!!
Tricky one. I asked my mum to only smoke outside and give it 10 minutes before she picks my son up when she visits. You can always smell the smoke on smokers breath right after they have had 1.
she seems to be doing her best only you can decide if this is enough. I would tut and let it go personally. Your wife MUST raise the issue with her mum not you. What does she think? Probably matters a bit more than internet forum users.
It is that someone the child loves and admires smokes and learns from that. It is important the sprog doesn’t see Gran smoke. Beyond that – not a biggie.
im the same i dont want my little one to see my misses smoke to the point she has now packed up and only smokes when out drinking(i dont get it but meh) but as said it seems she is trying but tbf u can only go so far when there putting herself out for u
its a grey area really only you no whats best for your baby.
also increases your childs chance of asthma as well as making it more likely for your shild to smoke. I’d either lay down the law or pay a nursery/childminder
It is that someone the child loves and admires smokes and learns from that. It is important the sprog doesn’t see Gran smoke.
see your point but I would be more worried about her seeing gran die from lung cancer. Perhaps that will guarantee she never smokes? Not sure one family member smoking will make her a smoker. None of my family smoked and I did when younger.
So let me get this right – your MIL is good enough to look after your child while you go to work and in your opinion has the blatant audacity to have a fag before you arrive in her house so as not to smoke in front of your child and you are complaining! I’m amazed that your missus (oddly not mentioned in any of this) managed to survive being brought up by such an uncaring Mother and isn’t a nicotine ridden wreck.
As you hate and find smokers so disgusting, you have no option but to find, and presumably pay, for someone else to look after your daughter.
Daily Mail (I know but it’s late and I can’t be arsed googling pubmed etc):
“Up to 90 per cent of the nicotine from cigarette smoke can stick to walls, clothes, hair and skin, Georg Matt, a professor at San Diego State University, found.
His early research suggests the chemicals from this ‘third hand smoke’ can be swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin of non-smokers, putting babies at particular risk.
The youngsters absorbed the harmful chemicals simply from touching furniture in a smoker’s house, or hugging their mothers after they had a cigarette.”
As most of the others have said if you don’t like it then pay for some childcare yourself.
The funny thing is though that most childcare is provided by young ladies who actually smoke quite a lot. They will not smoke in front of your children, but after their breaks they will come back in to the nursery or whatever place you leave your child reeking of fags, which is bad news according to some.
As for Granny smoking encouraging the little one to smoke. Well, unless you come from a really deprived area where smoking is the norm then I can’t see this happening. There is so much anti-smoking rhetoric taught to children nowadays I can’t see it happening.
I agree with the fact that second hand smoke is bad and as an ex-smoker I apologise to those who have had to breathe in my smoke 😳
However, the nicotine on the walls and skin makes me wonder about what these babies are doing in these smokers’ homes? I know that when babies reach a certain age they stick things in their mouths, but they do not go around the place licking the paint and people’s skin! Plus, nicotine isn’t the baddie when it comes to health problems although it certainly does not help with the addictive properties of smoking.
That’s what my mum would say! 😀 (Before giving me a clip round the ear)
In my vernacular, it would be ‘be’ave yerself!’
Some interesting factoids:
A smoker continues to breathe out carbon monoxide and other byproducts for two hours after a single cigarette.
A single cigar in an unventilated room produces the same toxins as around 40 cigarettes.
Some other interesting factoids:
You car is killing the planet.
Your bike is made using sweated labour, at least to extract the raw materials.
The environmental effect of that material extraction is killing the planet.
Etc. I think you get the picture.
Fair comments, speshly the bit about cot death and that. People shouldn’t smoke around babies and young children. Which apparently isn’t the case here anyway.
If you’re that concerned, don’t let your child stay with her nan, thus depriving them both of that relationship.
Or get yer kid one of these:
And paint over the visor so they can’t see nanny being evil.
The funny thing is though that most childcare is provided by young ladies who actually smoke quite a lot. They will not smoke in front of your children, but after their breaks they will come back in to the nursery or whatever place you leave your child reeking of fags,
Is this a fact? Or something you have just assumed out of thin (nicotine filled) air?
my mother told my gran (dads mother) that if she didn’t stop smoking she would never see me again (first grandchild) she stopped then and there and now says it was the best thing that ever happened. this all happened wehen i was about 3 weeks old (one week out of hospital)