Originally Posted by
sweetsunday
Also - what if other members of the family smoked, but not the parents? Such as siblings or whatever, and they don't want to quit.
My guess is that if anyone in the house smokes the family will be disqualified as foster parents.
Originally Posted by
sweetsunday
What if they smoke in every room of the house, maybe even deliberately disobeying the parents. What would happen if a parent took up smoking a few years after they start fostering - would the kids be snatched away from them again? What if the kid goes to someone elses house to visit a friend, and the friends family smoke? What if the parents don't smoke, but they regularly visit other people who do smoke? What if the kid sees people in the street smoking?
The potential foster parents are made aware of the rules and regulations before they start fostering. If they break the rules they probably receive a warning, and if they don't listen to the warning the kids will be removed.
While kids seeing other people smoke does result in a larger chance for them to start smoking, I think one of the big goals of this regulation is to prevent kids from being exposed to cigarette smoke.
Originally Posted by
sweetsunday
I agree that kids should be kept away from smoke - but surely the foster parents could just be monitored, making sure they don't smoke in front of the kids and keep it outside or in a special room.... Like social services, just checking up on the behaviours etc. There should be some sort of monitoring anyway, surely, to make sure the foster parents are doing a good job?
Social services is already incredibly overworked, do they really need to be doing additional checks to make sure no one is smoking in the house?