my parents smoked around us all the time...and my mom used the excuse that they didn't know any better back then. I call bullshit because I remember learning in school how bad smoking was for you and crying at 8 thinking my parents were going to die.
Young parents especially...just do dumb things sometimes.
1. They are young and ignorant...(not an excuse but people do what they do the best they can with what they know at the time)
2. Those kids came easy to them...got knocked up at a young age...and just simply don't appreciate the gift that the babies are
3. They are just uneducated and believe what they believe...that if they smoke with a window open in the care then the baby doesn't inhale the smoke
I say this because I sometimes did #3 with my kids in the car on long trips....I would open all the windows and hang my arm out the window so, no smoke is possibly going on/in my child...right??? WRONG! I found that out the hard way when my son was told he smelled like smoke when he was 11...and I never ever ever smoked again in his presence.
Also, when my kids were little....we didn't smoke in the house in general but on Friday nights people would come over to play cards...and I thought as long as the kids were in bed with the door shut.....it was ok. Wrong again!
But when you are addicted...you take risks, you justify...you fool yourself....anything...ANYTHING to get that fix. Even put blinders on
so what I am saying is....even the best of us.........did stupid things at one time or another :) didn't mean we didn't love our kids.