No Smoking in This Area ... or that one ... or that one, either ...

I have become the Smoking Nazi at the neighborhood pool.

It's really bad.

But I'm not ashamed of it at all.  I've always prided myself on being a non-smoker.

Well, OK, so I was not a non-smoker for a few months in college when tobacco was the only "bad" thing I could legally purchase, but I digress.

I can honestly say that since becoming a mom, especially, I have noticed smoking more ... when others are doing it ... I can smell it on anyone who has been within a mile of a smoker in the last 48 hours ...

I often find myself thinking, "Oh my gosh, that's what I smelled like for 7 years of school.  Eww."

Anyway, like I said, since becoming a mom, I have taken on this Warrior Princess of the Non-Smokers role.  I absolutely cannot stand it when I see pregnant women smoking.  I am appalled when I see parents smoking with their kids in the car.  Let it be known, Tim and a friend of ours did not invite a smoking-pregnant-mom friend on our boat a few years ago because we didn't like the message it sent about us and our families.  Also, I have not allowed Kendall to go to a friend's house more than once because I knew her parent's were smokers.

And yes, I have gotten out of my car, more than once, in the car pool line to tell someone that he or she wasn't supposed to be smoking on school grounds.

I just can't tolerate it.

I mean, if you KNOW that it WILL kill you -- not it might or it may -- it will, why would you do it?  And better yet, why would you do it to your kids????

Anyway, so I noticed earlier in the summer that there are a lot of smokers in our neighborhood (not really our neighborhood, but the neighborhood across the street with which we share amenities).  Now while the smokers are generally also the ones who do not hold back the swearing while they drink from glass beer bottles in the pool while their un-pottitrained kids are not wearing swim diapers (OH, I know I just ticked somebody off -- I'm not saying all smokers are like that.), let's just say they are easy to spot at the pool.

And it could be that they are usually sitting directly between two signs that say, very plainly, "No Smoking in This Area."

So, me being the nosy, pushy, and rule-following super parent (Don't laugh!), I have taken it upon myself to remind people (just in case the smoke is affecting their eyesight and they cannot read the signs) that they are not to smoke in that area.  And yes, I've even gone so far once as to tell the same person, "No, not that area either."

Don't you love me?

Sorry, dude, but I just can't let you break the rules at the expense of my kids' health.

So get over it.

And find somewhere else to puff that smoke.