sister is having a baby an is living with our dad but our dad smokes....

[Nostradama]

Maybe you need to develop a taste for smelly food?? j/k..sounds like you are downwind...not much can be done about that I guess...

will really do it for some people. There's one tenant in my building who was famous for pounding on doors and complaining if people on her floor cooked fish. In the condo building I moved from, there was "positive air pressure" in the hallways, so smells from inside the apartment-style condos couldn't be smelled in the hallways. Not here, which is older construction. Her door pounding, along with her complaints about people using the communal BBQ (didn't like the smell of BBQ, either), got her a visit from the owner, which is worse than a visit from the manager, as far as fear factor goes around here, even 'tho he's genuinely one of the nicest people I ever met. But not willing to put up with silly c***. Any more harrassment of others about "reasonable smells" and she'd be getting notice to vacate.

No more door pounding, and now anyone who wants to cook fish can do it without facing the miserable middle-aged bat. And we all went happily back to the BBQ. We just don't invite her.

[nza]

There's several recourses for this.
First is fact-finding. Call the nanaimo public health unit (250)755-6200. Not only will they give you information, they will also advocate. Have your sister in law go to pre-natal classes there. its free. She'll get a ton of information and get educated, and bring back lots of brochures and all that.

Second is to action. Move the **** out. Or, git your dad to smoke outside at the least. Unfortunately there isn't much of a recourse until the kid is born at which case The ministry can be brought in, with a referral, from a home vist from a public health nurse. This can be requested, the day the kid is born at the hospital when she meets the public health liason nurse.

There's already by-law and legislation against smoking in confined spaces such as vehicles when kids are in the car, as well as pregnant. Those same principles can be applied to smaller living areas.

When it comes to legalality of smoking. Who the **** cares. the legal is the lowest common denominator. What should be upheld are the morales and family values associated with smoking in the presence of a child.

The public health unit also can give you contacts like the BC lung association, BC Cancer agency, where they have lots of downloadable things to print off. Nothing will make a person quit smoking than a misscariage or the possibility of a dumb baby

[kittahmunhaPromotions]

i doubt the ministy would care if you called and said that someone was smoking in the same room as a baby.. they dont care about mothers getting drunk and partying around their children, they just give simple education on how to make the situation better. they only step in when the children are being abused (aka being beaten or neglected)... i, myself, have called the minsitry due to one of my friends doing coke with her kids being around and they told her to go to rehab and told me to presuade her to go to rehab, but since the kids were healthy and happy and she took generally really good care of them she still has them.

im not sure why you'd want to call the ministry over something so little anyways (if they even cared to do anything about it)... im sure that little child is going to resent you in the future for being ripped frm her home away from a loving family.

my parents smoked around me since day 1, windows closed, in the car with the windows up, and im pretty damn healthy. i dont smoke, myself, and i never will, but back in the 80s no one knew and smokes were waaaaay worse.

the easiest solution to this problem is suck it up and get your own place with your child. having support around is great but if you dont like something in your living situation then get the **** out.

[Nostradama]

i doubt the ministy would care if you called and said that someone was smoking in the same room as a baby.. they dont care about mothers getting drunk and partying around their children, they just give simple education on how to make the situation better. they only step in when the children are being abused (aka being beaten or neglected)... i, myself, have called the minsitry due to one of my friends doing coke with her kids being around and they told her to go to rehab and told me to presuade her to go to rehab, but since the kids were healthy and happy and she took generally really good care of them she still has them.

im not sure why you'd want to call the ministry over something so little anyways (if they even cared to do anything about it)... im sure that little child is going to resent you in the future for being ripped frm her home away from a loving family . . .

Correct. The Ministry of Children & Families (etc., etc.) is underfunded, understaffed, and unless things have changed, which I hope they have, sometimes not even qualified. I can remember times when they had so much trouble finding "social workers" in isolated northern areas that any university degree in any subject would get you a job working for them. Didn't matter if it was in basket weaving, if it was a university degree, they'd hire the person.

In the job I'm retired from there were laws that if there was even a suspicion of abuse or neglect happening, people were required to immediately report it. If they didn't, they could be charged themselves. I was step one in the chain, and over the years I probably dealt with about thirty-five cases of either suspicions or out-and-out neglect or abuse. Because kids were more comfortable having me take pictures of their injuries, I've sometimes taken pictures of injuries on kids' bodies that I won't even describe. I've been in houses where there were living conditions for the kids that I won't describe, either.

kittahmunhaPromotions is right. "MacFamilies" is understaffed to deal with things like a smoker in the same house as a pregnant woman. They're dealing with things like the teen boy who showed up at my door at 4:00 am, on the run from his father who'd beaten the living c*** out of him. And other cases worse than that--again, I'm not describing.

What really bothers me is what may or may not happen if a pregnancy is unplanned and the mother isn't even aware that she's pregnant for at least part of her first trimester where, as I understand it, a lot of damage can be done to the baby. Has Mom been drinking, smoking, doing drugs, not yet aware she's pregnant?

Through no choice of theirs, the Ministry of Families and Children has to draw the line somewhere on what they'll investigate and act on, and what they won't. Being in the same house as a smoker won't cross that line. If others have seen some of the kids and some of the homes I've seen, they'll understand why.

[motherwolf84]

I respect everyones opinion on the question. My step sister gave birth to her baby on april 4th i do believe and the babys head is not normal shape and looks alot like a baby who has FAS! Now When it comes to smokeing Its not just the smell, the smell carries nicotine which can be transfered to the baby, its called second hand smoke which is un-healthy and bad news for the baby. If im right about my step sisters baby just might have F.A.S (fetal alcohol syndrom), then that child is going to suffer his mothers mistakes for the rest of his life. My dad drank with my step sister while she was pregnate encouraging the bad behaviour. My step sister drank alcohol while pregnate, smoked cigarets and weed while pregnate, traveled long distance while pregnate and now the baby is going to suffer the concequences of his mothers actions which is wrong. That baby shouldnt have to suffer like that, im surprised but glad and greatful that her baby survived through everything she put him through. My dad and my step sisters actions are careless, ire-responsible and thoughtless. By my forcing them to change, was my way of saying im worried for the babys healthy, safety and well-being. They wouldnt listen to anything that was said to them, and still yet has not acepted the fact that they messed up. Now if what i am saying right now upsets anyone im sorry but i am entittled to my thoughts on the facts that i know to be true. Its a called freedom of speech, and i have that right just as much as anyone else does.