Smokers VS. Babies Mama's

Today an interesting conversation/argument arose while I was outside on my lunch break. At 12 in the afternoon I always go outside and sit on the bench that was placed on the sidewalk placed there by the town. On my lunch break I grab a cup of coffee from the deli across the street, and I sit down and light up a smoke.

I know some may be cringing, 2 bad habits in less than a minute. Caffeine and nicotine; everything yummy ends in 'ine'. Anyhow, I know smoking is the habit that bugs people the most, and it is not unusual for someone to walk by and say 'that's a bad habit,' or, 'You should quit smoking.' I ignore these folks, and go on puffing away...besides it's really my choice what goes into my body...and I choose to smoke, and I choose to drink coffee.

However I'm not here to justify my behavior. I'm here to justify my habits while smoking.

If I see a mother walking her baby in a stroller and they are about to pass me by, I will place the cigarette behind my back to ensure that I am not about to exhale into the child's face.

Today though as I saw a mother and child about to pass me, I hid the smoke behind my back. This woman though however decided to stop and say this: "Instead of hiding that cigarette behind you back, you should of put it out, or go across the street!" I felt my face growing hot, because as she sat there giving me the third degree the smoke was in fact clouding up all around her, and her baby. If she would of continued to walk by, this wouldn't of been an issue.

She then followed up with a big speech about how it's not right that her 3 month old is subjected to smelling other peoples smoke, and how it's cancerous, and blah blah yippity dah...

But here she was still standing there, still exposing her child to more and more cancerous substances that came flowing out of my cigarette like poetry.

I didn't quite know how to respond. I knew that by her standing there giving me this speech about what a piece of crap person I am, her kid that she cared soooo much about was breathing in my smoke.

Finally she moved on. I refused to apologize, because it is my feeling that by me not exposing her child to my smoke by hiding it behind my back as she passed was the right thing to do. Her stopping and giving me a speech is really where all the harm was done, if any was done at all.

Instead I sat there like a mute, and said nothing. I really wanted to cuss her out and give her a piece of my mind on the situation; but where would that get me? Nowhere really.

After she passed I sat and thought; should there be an unwritten rule for smokers involving strangers and their children when they pass us by on the streets? Should we scurry to put out out butts, or run across the street in all hopes we don't get hit by a car while trying to avoid the mommy and the baby in the stroller situation?

It's my feeling that no, I should not have to alter my lifestyle to accommodate a complete stranger, or anyone else for that matter. If she has a problem, she should of ran across the street. Right?

The fact of the matter is most people in the world could give two craps about a stranger they just met, and will most likely never meet again.
However I felt I was being kind enough by placing the smoke behind my back so she could quickly pass if she had a problem... hell, most people would blow the smoke right in the kids face and not give a rats tail.

I wrote this article to try and gather other peoples thoughts on the situation.

What do you feel? Do you feel I was in the wrong? Should I have put out my butt when I saw her coming, or should she have moved further away from me, or crossed the road if she had the problem?