You can do whatever you want so long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, including your family. Kill yourself for all we care. Just dig the grave and do the deed inside. Make it easier for everyone else.
how a respect for copyright law helps a society.
wow...I guess unless it's physical you don't count it.
I was replying almost exclusively to this:
Which is false (in a general sense).
It is mistreatment because of the effects of the (specifically cigarette) smoke. I wasn't actually hitting the legality argument at all since it's not illegal to smoke cigarettes in front of your kids.
Secondhand smoke is (really) bad for kids. The literal definition of child maltreatment is "Intentional harm to or avoidable endangerment of anyone under 18 years of age." This objectively declares someone that smokes cigarettes in front of their kids as child maltreatment, I'm not just blowing smoke (har har). Maybe you're confusing this with child abuse: "deliberate action that is harmful to a child's physical, emotional, or sexual well-being." Or child neglect: "failure to meet a child's basic physical, educational, or emotional needs".
Whether smoking is child abuse or child neglect is up to interpretation, but it is objectively child maltreatment.
Parents are allowed to fulfill their own desires, but I think my description of the act in front of kids as selfish is accurate. Definition of selfishness: "It is the act of placing one's own needs or desires above the needs or desires of others."
Maybe I should clarify clarify the label as a "bad parent." Your argument is that smoking in front of kids has little relationship with either being a bad parent or a good parent.
Parenting actions can probably be classified into three categories: good action, neutral action, and bad action. Smoking is definitely not a good action. Your argument is that it is closer to a neutral action than a bad action. This I disagree with. In the past the effects of the smoke were perhaps not as clear so this lends a reason to why it was socially acceptable. Today the effects are very clear, but unfortunately people are still addicted to these substances and it's not easy for people to just quit.
I agree that smoking in front of your kids is only one variable in determining overall parental quality; that a smoker can be a better parent than a non-smoker that does other things wrong. But I believe the action itself very clearly is lumped into the category with which a bad parent would do. So while calling someone a bad parent based upon this one tidbit of knowledge alone may be a slight exaggeration, because of the seriousness of the irreversible damage it causes I think it is appropriate.
My issue is more with the child not having a choice in the matter. I believe smoking in public should be illegal everywhere. When I'm downtown at practically every corner I see parents with a kid in their left hand and a cigarette in their right. As an adult, I can simply walk away and go somewhere else where people are not smoking, or avoid areas in general where smoking occurs. The child doesn't have this choice.
I don't know if it necessarily warrants taking a child away, but if the alternative is doing nothing then I would be okay with that. The best solution is probably somewhere in the middle.
I was refering to the lack of DIRECT impact on the kids, such as inhaling the smoke. Certainly watching your parents do heroin has an impact on your youth...
You have to be clear then if you are defending this. I know people that abuse drugs and have been fired due to it, I also know those that are responsible in their alternative lifestyles and keep it to themselves.
The really fucked up crusaders are those trying to fit 420 in everything they do. It'd be cool if they were some millionaire screwing around. It's not cool when they are just scraping middle class and posting up "Y0 it was 420 during my lunch break!"
Yes, I agree with almost all of that. I think smoking anything in front of your kids, especially when they do not have the option to leave, is a negative action.
Every parent in the world takes some action that others would view as negative. Even PJW with his 'perfect life' and 'perfect son' is criticized for taking his son to church where he will be brainwashed etc.
These actions do not automatically make a 'Bad Parent' and certainly Do not justify taking the child away. (This is the part where I disagree with you) Taking a child away from a parent who makes the occasional wrong choice and takes the occasional negative action does much more harm to the child than leaving him at home with imperfect parents.
In the case of this story the child was temporarily with 'family', which is a far better option than foster care of some sort.
I don't know if it necessarily warrants taking a child away, but if the alternative is doing nothing then I would be okay with that. The best solution is probably somewhere in the middle.
But I think we can agree there is probably a better solution.
You have to be clear then if you are defending this. I know people that abuse drugs and have been fired due to it, I also know those that are responsible in their alternative lifestyles and keep it to themselves.
The really fucked up crusaders are those trying to fit 420 in everything they do. It'd be cool if they were some millionaire screwing around. It's not cool when they are just scraping middle class and posting up "Y0 it was 420 during my lunch break!"
The really fucked up crusaders are those trying to fit 420 in everything they do. It'd be cool if they were some millionaire screwing around. It's not cool when they are just scraping middle class and posting up "Y0 it was 420 during my lunch break!"
Ya. Abuse of any drug, legal or otherwise, is a bad thing, with children around or not. There is a huge difference between use of a drug and abuse of a drug.
To be clear, I am not defending the parents. It is quite possible they were abusive and neglecting the boy and he was taken away for other reasons on top of the drugs. All I am saying is we don't have that information. It is also possible they were model parents who smoked a joint on the occasional weekend. Likely they were somewhere in between.
All I can tell you for sure is that in my situation, with drug smoking parents, it would have been devastating to be taken away from them at 11 years old. Social worker friends of mine (who incidentally are also pot users) say that children who are taken away forcibly from their parents are severely traumatized.
He probably thought he was helping.When a kid turns their parents in like this, there is a big problem at home.
meh, those people are in the same class of loser as the guys who sit in their parents basement playing WoW all day.
man, why is everyone pickin on me today
it's cozy down here, and dark
*shrug*
This country was founded on people breaking rules. If this was 1840 and you found a runaway slave seeking shelter and you were firmly against slavery would you turn that slave in to the law? Would you have forcibly removed Rosa Parks from her seat?
Wow Awesome. I definitely can't wait for the marijuana ice cream trucks. I wonder what song they're gonna play.
so... what foster parent would actually WANT this kid in their home?