JEFF PEARLMAN

JEFF PEARLMAN

Child abuse @ Sesame Place

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The family and I spent the weekend at Sesame Place, a halfway decent child theme park that requires a large roll of cash and a unique ability to ignore repetitive kiddie music played loudly over speakers.

Luckily, I had both.

What I don’t possess, however, is a tolerance of cigarette smokers—especially around kids.

Earlier this afternoon, as my son and daughter were playing with a bunch of oversized foam blocks, I turned to the wife and said, “Do you smell cigarette?” I turned around, there she was—a 30ish woman, puffing on a cigarette near, oh, 200 kids. A dude named Chris who worked at the park told her, “You can’t smoke here.” so the woman, being a fool, moved behind a metal pole. “Eh, no,” Chris said. “You can’t smoke anywhere here.”

“Oh,” she replied.

Later in the day, while waiting for my wife and daughter to return from a ride, I snapped the above photo. There were a surprisingly number of people smoking with their kids, which—I believe …

A. Should be illegal.

B. Is, factually, child abuse.

C. Is just really, really f&^$ed up.

I mean, in 2009, who the hell smokes cigarettes around children? For that matter, who the hell smokes? Forget the health issues. How about the price? Seven … eight … nine bucks a pack.

What a joke.