Burning Question
“Can pot make you a better parent?”
Asks the Guardian, in a classic-sentence-kind-of-way. It has to be said, even for the Guardian, it isn’t the most promising start:
An Oregon mother posted a photo last year of herself breastfeeding her baby while she took a bong hit.
This photo here, in case you’re curious.
Naturally, the image went viral…. Jenn Lauder, an Oregon cannabis activist… chided the breastfeeder for exposing the baby to smoke and for the “optics” of the image. “That mom could have made better choices,” Lauder told me recently.
Happily, things soon mellow out a bit:
Yes, it’s jarring to see a woman in a quintessential act of motherhood with her face in a bong. But the reality is some parents believe cannabis improves their child rearing… Marijuana, as cannamoms and cannadads see it, relieves the tedium of parenting while helping them engage with their children. With marijuana, “I’m able to sit and play Legos for an extensive period of time… and make it more fun rather than something functional,” said April Pride, founder of Van der Pop, a line of stylish cannabis accessories for women. She said it also helped break up the monotony of spending more time at home.
You see, they’re doing it for the kids. How terribly selfless and high-minded. Another imbibing parent adds, “There’s too much taboo about it. It’s the equivalent of having a couple of glasses of wine in my life.” Though I suspect that a parent knocking back several glasses of wine during the day, every day, to make playing with their child more fun, might raise a few eyebrows.
And then,
When a parent is an open cannabis user it can also change the tenor of conversations with kids about drug use. “Cannabis has strengthened the bond I have with my daughter because I’m honest about something that’s important to me,” Lauder said. “At age 10, she’s incredibly social justice minded.”
Oh dear. And it was going so well.
Update, via the comments:
For what it’s worth, I’m not disapproving of recreational cannabis use, though it’s not my thing. I find it incapacitating. But the Guardian article does feature a tangle of messages that aren’t entirely consonant and seem rather self-serving. We’re told that getting stoned while supposedly being responsible for small children, and talking with 10-year-olds about the joys of getting high, is “the equivalent of having a couple of glasses of wine.” As if parents getting pissed while looking after the kids, and as if 10-year-olds talking about mummy’s drug use, were in no way contentious. We’re also told that getting stoned while on duty, as it were, is a bonding exercise. Specifically,
Cannabis has strengthened the bond I have with my daughter because I’m honest about something that’s important to me.
But imagine someone saying my drinking is important to me. What would that suggest?
Via Julia.
Marijuana…relieves the tedium of parenting while helping them engage with their children.
Well, now they tell me.
And here, my wife and I thought we were doing a decent job, what with the eldest gainfully employed and pursuing a graduate degree in Europe, the middle one with a security clearance and making metric shit-tons of money and the youngest being a national merit finalist.
How much better could we have been had we just fired up a bomber now and again during our parental sojourn.
And, yeah, the Mom in quo looks like a paragon of parenting specifically and life generally. Step aside, Benjamin Spock.
How dare you question the lady’s progressive parenting style.
With marijuana, “I’m able to sit and play Legos for an extensive period of time…
I’ll bet.
How dare you question the lady’s progressive parenting style?
She should be a poster child for your prior post.
Betteridge’s Law of Headlines applies here with gusto, I note.
Note also the complete avoidance of the question of baby’s health. Could cannibis affect the developing brain of an infant? Who cares! It’s all about easing the Job Of Mom. Because making child-rearing fun and easy is more important than the result of said rearing (with special pleading about results). Bong Babying – It’s A Good Thing (R).
Again, Apocalypse? Anyone…anyone…?
Barring that, I’m gonna need some of that camel hump fat pronto. Curious, anyone tries smoking that sh*t?
How dare you question the lady’s progressive parenting style.
If that had been cheap brands of cigarettes and beer we could absolutely question her parenting – dumb rednecks and all. But pot has an SJW veneer, so it’s ok.
It’s all the same though, in my opinion. Gin, Mother’s Little Helper, wine, beer, opiods, pot. The method has changed fashion over the centuries, and varies with the income or class of the imbiber, but the reasons for imbibing probably have changed very little.
In today’s world though, we have the ability to take pictures like that on the spot and disseminate them to the world in seconds.
I should point out I’ve known people who, after years of practice, can function (more or less) while moderately stoned, albeit generally in situations less unpredictable or potentially disastrous than those involving the care of small children. I, on the other hand, am utterly incapacitated after two tokes and therefore don’t indulge. It’s not my vice.
But I suppose what raises an eyebrow is the premise that the imbibing parents aren’t actually being selfish and irresponsible, but are somehow doing it for the kids. Because getting wrecked while child-minding is somehow, rather conveniently, a bonding exercise and a vehicle for “social justice.”
Let us not be too hasty, perhaps the baby was nauseated or had glaucoma, the thing isn’t old enough to toke on its own, after all.
“Cannabis has strengthened the bond I have with my daughter because I’m honest about something that’s important to me,” Lauder said. “At age 10, she’s incredibly social justice minded.”
This mother of the year is bonding with her 10 year old by talking about her drug use. F*cking hell.
I might have been sympathetic had the accompanying photograph depicted something more bourgeoisie bohemian and less straight-out-of-Trailer-Park-Boys.
I foresee that child suffering injury in the future, caused by stepping upon crushed, empty beer cans. While indoors.
I fail to see how this is different from some chavette guzzling Kestrel while breastfeeding.
Surely the Graun wasn’t always utterly morally bankrupt?
Everything I know about cannabis and children tells me this is a very, very bad idea.
It is absolutely expected that I’d see it in the Grauniad, the place where bad ideas go to die and rot.
At least drunk parents aren’t forcing the stuff down their kids’ throats. But that’s what the stoners are doing. Getting their babies stoned, with all that dope smoke around. Why haven’t they been arrested?
…I’d see it in the Grauniad, the place where bad ideas go to die and rot.
I dunno, from what I have seen, it is where bad ideas go to fester and infect the things it touches.
This mother of the year is bonding with her 10 year old by talking about her drug use.
Readers are invited to weigh the relative harms of parents smoking cannabis in front of their ten-year-olds, or raising said ten-year-olds to be enthused by “social justice.”
Replace marijuana with tobacco and imagine the Guardian’s relaxed and quietly approving response.
Goddamnit. I partake in the green stuff nearly every day and am a father, and that is fucked up. It’s idiots like this that set back the moral cause of legalization. You can imbibe and NOT be a shit parent. It merely takes a modicum of discipline and common sense, no different than liquor. At the very least this person should understand that it is her choice to use drugs and her kid should have that choice as well when they are old enough to be able to weigh the risks. Ugh what a fucking mess.
I hate to sound stuffy and old-fashioned, but I assumed it was customary for kids to be sent to their grandparents for the weekend, ostensibly as a treat, whenever mum and dad want to have a riotous, full-frontal sex-and-drugs party.
Nothing against personal use of cannabis in general, but, that being said… fat, dumb and stoned is no way to go through motherhood.
I, on the other hand, am utterly incapacitated after two tokes and therefore don’t indulge. It’s not my vice.
Same here. I have seen photos of myself passed out on a sofa at a party, with a couple of young ladies painting a make-up clown face on me. Thankfully, no Sharpie permanent markers were involved – and it was before the Facebook era. (o_O)
Gin Lane and Beer Street are now joined by Pot Alley.
Tried it back in High School and never saw any point. Tasted nasty and didn’t accomplish anything.
Anyway, I was reminded of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=31&v=VXGTPd9ln2E
That’s just the final scene. You can probably guess what led up to it.
I assumed it was customary for kids to be sent to their grandparents for the weekend, ostensibly as a treat, whenever mum and dad want to have a riotous, full-frontal sex-and-drugs party.
The old ways are the best. 🙂
I just learned that Patrick McManus died Wednesday at age 84. 😢
I hate to sound stuffy and old-fashioned, but I assumed it was customary for kids to be sent to their grandparents for the weekend
You presume that there are grandparents, plural, and that they are any more responsible than the parents. This is the inevitable result of multi-generational welfare dependency, single motherhood, and the society-wide abjuration of moral standards.
You presume that there are grandparents, plural, and that they are any more responsible than the parents.
Well, quite.
Instalanche!
I’d sound “Stand To,” but I always confuse that with “Officers Dress For Dinner.”
Instalanche!
[ Pushes latest bar snack to prominent position. ]
Act casual, say nothing.
How ’bout this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI30rjFnAds
Marijuana, as cannamoms and cannadads see it, relieves the tedium of parenting while helping them engage with their children. With marijuana, “I’m able to sit and play Legos for an extensive period of time… and make it more fun rather than something functional
What a strange bugman sentiment. Did this person have have any life experience interacting with juvenile Earthlings before she gave birth to one?
Its not my weapon of choice, but i get the sentiment. Tedious stuff like teaching my kid to drive is certainly far more interesting after a few jack and cokes.
Act casual, say nothing.
Was once taken in by another Fat substitute Olestra with some rather disturbing side effects.
Won’t be fooled again.
The father could not be reached for comment
With marijuana, “I’m able to sit and play Legos for an extensive period of time…
…I haven’t actually won a game yet, but I’m getting closer.”
First rule of the Guardian: Any human act will be supported or criticised solely dependent upon whether the Middle Classes do it.
April Pride, founder of Van der Pop, a line of stylish cannabis accessories for women.
Well, yes. How Guardian is that?
Again, I’m not disapproving of recreational cannabis use, though it’s not my thing. But the Guardian article does feature a tangle of messages that aren’t entirely consonant and seem rather self-serving. We’re told that getting stoned while supposedly being responsible for small children, and talking about being stoned with 10-year-olds, is “the equivalent of having a couple of glasses of wine.” As if parents getting pissed while looking after the kids, and as if 10-year-olds talking about mummy’s drug use, were in no way contentious. We’re also told that getting stoned while on duty, as it were, is a bonding exercise. Specifically,
But imagine someone saying my drinking is important to me. What would that suggest?
“The father could not be reached
for commentperiod”This lady is going the breast-feeding, pot smoking mom one better…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/woman-allowed-2-year-old-to-smoke-meth-police-say/ar-AAvRp3G?ocid=iehp&li=BBnbfcL&ocid=U452DHP
Oxford pot party goes up in smoke.