- #1
Gabrielle
- 9
- 0
My mother and I go shopping every now and then in my car. I don't allow smoking in my car since I'm not a smoker myself. My mother doesn't seem to mind sitting on a bench or a picnic table outside the store in warm weather but winter is another story. I don't like to force her to smoke outside in the winter when the temperatures are below freezing. However, I will agree to let her smoke with the door open while she's actually sitting in the car (turned sideways with her feet on the ground and facing the outside). I can't tell you how guilty I feel making her stand outside while she's shivering from the cold and scarcely able to hold onto her cigarette. I realize how addictive smoking can be. My mother has been smoking since high school so I've kind of given up on her being able to quit although she has tried the nicotine patches in the past. For many years, she has confined her smoking to one room in the house--the kitchen. However, she has restricted her smoking one step further by confining herself to the cellarway as she recently bought some new kitchen curtains and didn't want nicotine film on her perky new curtains. My brother also smokes and when he visits, my mother doesn't smoke while he's there because she doesn't want to ask that he also smoke in the cellarway. I'm worried that smoking in the cellarway will bother my mother's lungs even more as the cellarway is a smaller space and the nicotine smell is very obvious. My sister (a former smoker) can't stand to be around cigarette smoke now and doesn't want anyone to smoke around her young son, Nicholas. When my sister and her son come to visit, my mother used to smoke out on the doorstep for awhile until my sister finally told her, "Mama, go ahead and smoke. After all, it is your house and Nick is usually in the other room watching TV when you're smoking anyway." My mother doesn't smoke nearly as often when she has company anyway because she doesn't want people to know how much she smokes.
I also remember when I gave a co-worker a ride to pick up her car at the garage. It was the first time she had ridden in my car. She had a cigarette halfway to her mouth and she was already to "fire up" her Bic lighter when she asked, "You don't mind if I smoke, do you?" I told her that I didn't even allow my own mother to smoke in my car.
Also, my parents bought a new car recently and my mother prefers to ride in their pickup truck because she's been smoking in that vehicle right along. My father thinks that the reason why she'd rather ride in the truck is because she doesn't want to "stink up" the new car although my father hasn't told her that she couldn't smoke in the new car.
I also remember when I gave a co-worker a ride to pick up her car at the garage. It was the first time she had ridden in my car. She had a cigarette halfway to her mouth and she was already to "fire up" her Bic lighter when she asked, "You don't mind if I smoke, do you?" I told her that I didn't even allow my own mother to smoke in my car.
Also, my parents bought a new car recently and my mother prefers to ride in their pickup truck because she's been smoking in that vehicle right along. My father thinks that the reason why she'd rather ride in the truck is because she doesn't want to "stink up" the new car although my father hasn't told her that she couldn't smoke in the new car.
