Mother allowed boy, 3, to smoke

Anyone who watched Thursday's evening news in the UK, will have heard the item about a Welsh mother being convicted for allowing her three-year-old son to develop a smoking habit. For those of you unfamiliar with this story, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. As this so-called mother chatted on the phone, her toddler son, who should have been playing with his toys, lit a cigarette, and smoked it. Get this - she claimed not to know he was doing so. But a witness, who filmed the incident on her phone, and sent it to social services, said the child was clearly used to smoking. The video showed that he suffered no distress or discomfort as he sucked the smoke into his lungs - so he had clearly done it before.

This story beggars belief. Who the hell even leaves a lighter and cigarettes anywhere near a three-year old? I get angry just seeing parents smoking in front of their children. But a toddler lighting up and smoking in front of his mum? What planet was the silly cow on? I can't decide which horrifies me most, the little lad smoking, or him using a lighter. Both are equally horrendous. She was given a suspended jail term, and from what I understand, the child is still in her care. Why? What next? A four-year-old girl selling crack to support her own habit? Some people aren't fit to have fleas, yet alone children.

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