DISQUS

Our second daughter has co-slept with us since the night she was born -- at home. She\'s the most mellow baby one could hope for, and it\'s worked out awesome.

Our first daughter has co-slept with us since she was out of the hospital with her mama. Now, at three, she goes to bed on her own (after stories from me and \"huggies and rubbies\" from mom), and we scoop her up into our communal bed when we go to sleep.

It\'s been awesome so far, and we\'re happy to provide that confidence (that someone is always there for them) to our kids in their formative years.

As for the sex life, that\'s necessarily hampered by children coming into our lives, but we boink like maniac animals in the living room while the kids sleep. What\'s the difference [i]where[/i] you do it?

Personally, I roll my own cigarettes, so they are both free of nasty terrible additives (urine, rat poison, ammonia? whatever) of regular cigarettes, and composed entirely of easily biodegradable materials.

Harry, if I felt my smoking harmed my daughters, I would stop. As it is, I never smoke inside, never smoke inside a car, and am very careful of my smoke when I do partake when around my daughter out of doors.

Additionally, I am very conscious of non-smokers and do not linger around a doorway or other cramped space. We smoke around the corner of the office well away from foot traffic.

I smoke maybe ten cigarettes a day, and cycle to and from work almost fifteen miles a day at least thrice a week. As for the latter, even I was surprised that my smoking didn\'t seem to cause me any problems with the exercise.

I\'m not trying to say smoking is \"good\" and it is most likely less than neutral any way you look at it (*); I merely objected to the initial insinuation that a man is a bad parent simply because he smokes. (And that was the intended insinuation, evidenced by the discussion and in spite of the \"around your kids\" modifier in the title.)

(* Although I have heard it helps protect against Alzheimer\'s, and my non-smoking uncle is suffering from early-onset, so maybe it\'s worth it for me.)

The thing that bugs me about those who eat fast food is how they toss their wrappers wherever they please when they\'re done--especially out the car window. If cops would ticket these litterers every time they saw a still-wet Coke cup skip across the pavement we could fund schools and other town projects from the fines. Maybe a fast food eater could answer the question: why do most of you think the world is your trashcan?

Wait a second -- now I\'m an asshole if I smoke /anywhere/ and neglect to change my clothes and dry-clean them? I assume that would also apply to any kind of environmental contaminants that may be clinging to my clothing.

I agree that smoking with your child in closed quarters is not good for him. I feel the same about spray-painting, working on your car, or anything else that causes a direct environmentally adverse affect.

The insinuation to which I am objecting is that smoking is worse than any of these other behaviors, even when done responsibly.

A dog in the house could eat your child.

Idling your car while loading your kids in it is exposing them to fumes many times worse than second-hand smoke.

Some scientists consider UV radiation bad to ANY degree. Would you endanger your child by exposing any part of them to the evil sun?

Seriously, though, I applaud anyone trying to make the world a better place for kids, and smoking in an enclosed space is at best not good for a child, but the hyperbole here does a disservice to a the message, as evidenced by my personal outrage at being branded a selfish asshole for indulging in something that, as I practice it, is [i]not[/i] harmful to my child.

Is the article about smoking \"in front of\" your kids, or smoking in an enclosed space such that your kid suffocates?

Harry, there are certainly exceptions to every rule. Ideally, I\'m sure all parents would want to breast feed and raise their kids themselves instead of shipping them off to a petting zoo run by chain-smoking smeth addicts so that they can afford a decent public education at the Indoctrination Center.

I don\'t have the least desire to quit smoking because I enjoy smoking. I also shoot skeet now and then, but I don\'t toss babies into my line of fire and watch the infantestines fly.

Smoking inside, in a car or any closed space, even outside while holding a baby would be irresponsible, but the author is jumping to all of those conclusions to pursue some blanket jihad against smokers.

If it\'s merely a matter of giving the impression to your child that smoking is OK, well -- it is, as with anything, in moderation. The registration for this site asks about your favorite beer! Is it OK to drink in front of your kid?

The title brands the stroller-pushing dad as a \"selfish asshole.\" What about moms who will not breast-feed their kids, or schedule cosmetic c-sections? Or parents who drop their kids in day-care at a young age? Or divorce? Or cry-it-out?