Once you have kids, it's not about you.

Just that one line.

Parents should have to repeat that 100 times before they leave the hospital. Write it on the nurse's station whiteboard 50x before they get discharged.

Seriously.

No arguement here!  Smoking with kids in the car is truly irresponsible parenting!!  Not that I think we need the government telling us what to do and not do....but, wasn't there a law passed recently that made it against the law to smoke in the car with children under a certain age?  Just like the cell phone law that was supposed to stop people from talking on their phones without hands free or ear bud devices....you need the enforcers to  stop these idiots!  I guess we as citizens are expected to do what??? 

Obama is going to inspire people though. Everyone will quit smoking and start volunteering to pick up trash on the beach. It's going to be a new nirvana.

And totally unrelated to your post...you see that Obama supports Roe v Wade because he knows women don't decide to have abortions "lightly." No crap Obama, but they sure decided to get pregnant lightly. What kind of rationale is that? "Women should be able to abort their babies, because you know, that's a really hard decision." Idiot.

I can go both ways on the government telling us what to do bit.  As parents, we slap the hands of our kids when they reach for the electrical outlet or into the knife drawer.  It's a safety lesson, necessary because nobody has taught them yet.  We have a lot of parents who need safety lessons.  So by all means, ticket the woman smoking with kids in the car.  The cell phone issue is a joke and entirely different.  But for safety, especially safety of those dependant on adults...  the government should get in there.  And you can get the ticket off your record if you go to parent school...  like traffic school.

Obama...  ya...  not gonna do it.

When I taught high school, I had so many students who smoked.  They get hooked at a very young age.

Yes, that's for sure...like in the womb?  Mothers who smoke while pregnant and then continue to smoke as their infants get bigger....or, fathers who don't get the fact that their family should not be subjected to second hand smoke just because they choose to smoke!  

As far as the cell phone issue, I see that as a safety issue as well.  Think about how many idiot drivers you have been nearly hit by because they are too engrossed in their phone conversation to pay attention to driving, the speed limits, the lights changing from yellow to red.....lane changes and me and my kids right next to them?  Just Saturday, we were going to my grandma's house to pick up a few things and this mini van was driving like they were drunk.  The GUY driving with his kids in the car (getting on the 99 FWY at 40 MPH with big rigs barreling down on top of him at 55+ MPH) was talking on his cell phone - and he never did speed up!  DUH!!  I guess when he is hit by a big rig and his family is wiped out, he will have learned his lesson, or maybe when he runs another family off the road and into a cement barrier....?

As far as Obama.....PLEASE, spare me!  He is an....idiot!  

but then where do you draw the line?  Drivers should get tickets for not driving at 10 and 2.  I agree that people get engrossed in conversation on the cell phone.  but what about conversation with passengers IN the car?  what about drinking coffee or other drinks?  checking maps? changing the radio station? doing makeup? eating fast food? singing along with music?  daydreaming? 

That's why the cell phone law is silly to me, not because it doesn't serve a purpose, but because it's like trying to change the course of a river with a sponge.

My mom was a smoker all my life.  She would smoke in the car, the store, the house, etc.  I grew up HATING cigarettes, smoking, smokers, etc.  Luckily for me I'm the exception to the rule.  I didn't run out and start smoking because mom did it.  It was because mom did it that I didn't.  I smelled the ashtray breath, the yellow fingers, the smokers cough and later in life I dealt with her COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) the oxygen tank she carried with her everywhere she went when she was well enough to go places, and ultimately her death.  Smoking is an UGLY habit and if you don't love your kids enough in life to stop, imagine how horrible it is for them when you're gone.

My mom was an amazing woman, it's just too bad that she let smoking take her life.  She was only 69, way too young to die, especially when the 8 years leading up to her death were filled with oxygen tanks, dr visits, nebulizer treatments...

Think about it.

My grandparents were the same way, Jencess.  I'm sorry to hear about your mom, but glad to hear that you use that experience to motivate you.  it should be motivation to all of us!  Thanks for sharing that.