Two more days of smoking left, then I'm done. I can't believe I'm quitting. I've been thinking about it for so long, that it always seemed like something I'd do when I got older. Oh, wait a minute, I am older!!! So many times I thought about it, and decided that I wasn't going to submit to the pressures that "society" put on me to quit. It's expensive to smoke, I would counter with, if they want to tax something, why don't they put a heavier tax on Alcohol? Way more people drink than smoke, I'd say. Smokers are shunned, and frowned upon everywhere. It's hard to imagine a time when everyone smoked. I even recall seeing cigarette smoke in cartoons as a kid! Now, the MPAA wants to rate any movie that even mentions or shows smoking as R. Is that crazy? I mean, we practically have porn playing on the big 3 channels, (not even HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax, we KNOW they have porn), and they are worried about cigarettes? I watched the last half hour of some documentary about the movie Deep Throat a few weeks ago. I sat there, listening to the people talk about how lewd and pornographic this movie was, and I said to myself, the censors would have heart attacks if they watched some TV nowadays.
I mean, we as a society have become so desensitized to violence and sex, that we let our kids watch it, and then blame TV when our kids turn out to be violent, or get pregnant. We don't spend enough time with our children. PERIOD. We spend our days rushing them from day care, or school, to after school activities like soccer, or hockey, or baseball, football, basketball, golf, swimming. Then we have the tutors on the days that we don't have sports practice, because, I have to make my child make a choice about his future by the time he's 5 or he won't get into a good college. By the time junior high comes, our kids are tired, and weary. They feel like adults, because for the last 10 years of their life, we scheduled them like one. No wonder our kids are gettin' it on at the age of 12, 13, or 14. We treat them like adults, so why shouldn't they act like one. If they don't fully understand the depth of what they are doing and end up pregnant, or with an STD, it's OK, mommy and daddy will take care of it. Our children have no responsibility anymore. Sure, you can say that all the sports teams and stuff are a good idea for the kids, and for the most part, they are.
I'm talking about the kids who are in every sport, and every after school activity. These are the ones, the forced overachievers, or the actual overachievers. For example, my son and I went to visit my family in NJ about 2 years ago, there was a baptism for my cousins youngest child. There was a great party after, with all the family and friends just hanging out and talking, visiting. My other cousins son, was out front playing football with some of the other kids. My cousin starts yelling at his son, saying that he has to get off the line faster. The kid was PLAYING! Attempting to have a good time while all the adults were throwing back beer like prohibition was tomorrow, and all he was doing was screaming at his son to move faster. I thought that sports were played in order to teach cooperation and improve hand-eye coordination. I wish we could just let our kids be kids. I will not put my son into organized sports, unless he asks to play. I won't force him to be around "those parents" who think that their kid is THE BEST at whatever they do. I don't want to subject him to that mindset. Thank God he's only 4.
1 comment:
Good luck with quitting. Every time I see a woman smoking outside our office building, I want to tell her that lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer and uterine cancer combined, and smoking causes lung cancer. Each of us needs to view a woman smoking the same we we would our mother or sister or daughter and urge her to stop, for all our sakes.
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