Drug talk in public, perhaps a muzzle is in order
Categories: Toddlers, Teens & tweens, Health & safety, Development
I like to fancy myself a fairly open minded person, one who possesses a live and let live philosophy or an each to their own sort of outlook to life. But today I was on a ski shuttle bus when three young women got on the bus and began to openly discuss their drug endeavors. It went something like this:Skier 1: "Yeah, I love whippets. But I don't bother with just one, I buy them by the case. You can keep a much better high going that way."
Skier 2: "Me too! But once my mom caught me with a bunch and asked me if they were mini oxygen tanks."
Skier 3: "That's like the time my grandmother found my one hitter in the driveway. She actually brought it back to me and asked me if I had lost a weird screw and returned it to me!"
Skier !: "That's hilarious! But I don't like one hitters, if I'm gonna get high I want to do it right. That's just not enough for me."
Skier 3: "I so agree!"
While I completely support these women's rights to expression, I couldn't help but wonder why they needed to do it at such loud decibels. They were not teenagers, they were well into their 20's, where was their restraint? Did they not notice the woman with the toddler sitting in front of them? What if there had been older children in the shuttle? Would they have prattled on about their drug use then? This is the sort of exchange that I would not have given a second thought to years ago; but now that I have kids, one of them being a teen, I have to stop and ponder it.
As we departed the shuttle, one of the women turned and approached me to comment on how cute my toddler, Devon, was. I paused a moment, my thoughts on the tip of my tongue, but then smiled and told her to have a nice day. Should I have said something? Maybe so.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ron 1-03-2007 @ 3:02PM
Unfortunatley, it's up to you as a parent to put that conversation into context for your child. You can't muzzle the whole world to your liking.
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daisy 1-03-2007 @ 4:05PM
Hmm... could this have been a joke of sorts, staged specifically because they were in public and trying to shock everyone around them?
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LB 1-03-2007 @ 5:14PM
I think a friendly "Little Pitchers" or "Hey, Guys? Mixed Company" sung out by you would have been acceptable.
We've done that when waiting in lines at 6Flags or the movies with a big smile and have never had a problem even with some tougher looking kids.
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minnie 1-03-2007 @ 6:21PM
pish.
why should kids not know that people have vices?
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L.M. 1-03-2007 @ 11:56PM
I totally understand and empathize with your concerns and frustrations, but on the other hand, I’m not sure it’s up to the strangers occupying a public place to censor themselves because a child is within earshot. I could understand if it was a child-oriented place, like a kid’s birthday party or something, but if one goes out into the adult world, child or no, there’s no telling what they might see or hear, especially since everyone has a different sensibility for what’s appropriate and what isn’t. And, if the kid is old enough to actually catch what’s going on, the unseemly conversation can actually open an opportunity for dialogue about drugs/drinking/whatever.
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