Smoking in Front of Your Kids is Bullshit

*Fair warning: I will occasionally use profanity in this post. If this offends you, I'm sorry. Don't read it.*

I'm going to start a facebook shitstorm with this post. But really, smoking in front of your kids is one of those subjects on which I reveal that I am in fact related to the rest of my family and become completely and totally NOT politically correct.

If you disagree with me please feel free to publish your own posts about why I'm wrong. Forgive me if I don't bother to dignify your posts by responding to them.

My logic goes something like this:

Cancer is bullshit.

Smoking causes cancer. (Please see TheTruth.com if you have questions here).

Second hand smoke causes cancer.

Therefore: Smoking in front of your children is giving them cancer.

Or for those who want to argue the point I'll word it more technically correct: Smoking in front of your children carries the direct risk of giving your children cancer.

And personally I don't see how its any different from poisoning your kids right here and now instead of 20 years from now, maybe. It wouldn't be okay to play russian roulette with your toddler so why is it okay to play time machine russian roulette with your toddler.

If you're an adult and you chose to smoke, more power to ya. You're an adult. If you want to slowly kill yourself that is your right and privilege. My uncle who used to smoke once told me that: "Smoking is for cowards who haven't got the guts to kill themselves outright." I think I need that on a t-shirt personally.

So please, if you want to smoke feel free. But I don't wanna die that way so please don't do it any where near me. And if you do it any where near my child I reserve the right to come unglued.

Also if I see you smoking in front of your children I will attempt to restrain my impulse to smack you upside the head and call CPS because personally, I consider it child abuse.

Yes there is a new study out there that claims that there MIGHT be actual long term mental health side effects from smoking in front of your kid. I'd love to see some more research done but it was a big sample in a well done study so I'm inclined to think that further studies will continue to find similar results.

AND theres a whole body of existing research about how bad it is for their physical health to smoke in front of your kids for those unconvinced by the latest study about mental health. Feel free to go ask your pediatrician about it. The American Academy of Pediatrics would LOVE to educate you on the subject I'm sure.

If you don't want to be my friend any more after reading this post that is your right and privilege. If you disagree with me in the comments here please bring a LARGE body of empirical, impartial, peer reviewed scientific research as evidence or I will feel free to ignore you. 

Semi Rant: Extraordinary Measures

I do NOT understand using extraordinary measures to prolong the life (and suffering) of a very elderly person. I'm talking about someone old, who has lived their life, who is at peace with their place in it and wants to go home to their Heavenly Father and whose life is only being sustained by machines and science. And most importantly is in pain and not likely to get better. Ever.

I'm not saying we should go pull the plug on every coma patient or that nobody should ever use extraordinary measures to sustain life. However, in this case, its an end of life scenario where even if the individual were to survive the current event the damage is so significant that their quality of life for however long they have left is going to suck. Big time.

I really hate quality of life discussions. They're no fun. They're uncomfortable. Nobody likes to have the chat but I've had to have these discussions before with my parents as they've both survived multiple rounds of cancer. And with cancer the bisnitch of the thing is that there's almost ALWAYS something more they can try, but the thing is, some of the treatments are so horrible, and they'll only buy you maybe a couple months extra, if they don't kill you outright. So you can have 3 months of pretty okay and then croak or you can have maybe a year from hell and then die anyways. My parents have both clearly expressed that they don't want to be subjected to that. They'd both rather go in peace and have made both my sister and I promise to let them do just that.

But the poor soul I'm thinking of is currently being put through the ringer because their children are not ready yet for them to leave. The same children who are not sitting at the bedside watching their loved one suffer. I think if you want to put that person through this hell, especially when they've said they don't want to, then you should have to sit there and WATCH and not go out of town to party in Vegas. You're a 60 something year old person. Grow up and do right by your parent and stop bullying/guilt tripping the person with medical power of attorney into doing what you want.

I may be slight opinionated...

Random Post #342.91678

So I'm debating the odds that I would have to call a plumber if I were to actually do as I've threatened a million times now and flush the kid down the toilet. Because I apparently did not give birth to a human child as I first thought, I apparently gave birth to a howler monkey or possibly a pterodactyl. Sometimes its hard to tell which really.

Oh and he's cutting a new molar and he's got a cold. So he's been a SUPER HAPPY little camper this week. Can you see me twitch from there?

But in other news I made good headway to today in putting away/organizing my beads in the new drawers. This is super positive and I've been avoiding it. But I realized today that I had this giant mess I call a dining room/ kitchen to clean and I was reasonably confident that if I cleaned it it would simply be dirty again in record breaking time and I just couldn't face cleaning it but then in one corner of the filth I saw the beads sitting there in the suit case waiting to be unpacked and put away and like a shining ray of hope I saw something I could clean that would probably stay that way for at least a day or two and it was bright and glorious. So we spent some quality time playing with the beads (and getting lots of good ideas for what I want to do with some of them).

And other than some minor friend stalkage/withdrawl I'm going okay. And at some point when I'm feeling more verbose I'll tell you all about my trip home for Turkey Day.