Parents Allow Toddler To Smoke

If your two-year-old has a temper tantrum, chances are you won’t give in to his or her demands.  “If Mommy says you can’t have a cookie right before dinner, Mommy MEANS you can’t have a cookie right before dinner.  And that goes for cigarettes too!”  Cigarettes?

Yes, we said cigarettes. And in this case, it is unfortunate that the mother of Indonesian two-year-old Ardi Rizal refuses to say no to his tantrums.  Tantrums he is throwing in order to get a cigarette.

Indeed, two year old Ardi has a two pack a day habit.  His parents purchase the one brand of cigarette he demands, allowing him to smoke 40 cigarettes a day.    Twenty-six year old mother Diana has stated, “He is totally addicted.  If he doesn’t get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams.”  His mother has also seen him slam his head in to the wall in order to get his way while telling his mother he feels dizzy and sick.

Officials in their locale have offered to give the family a car if they stop allowing Ardi to smoke.  But the parents have passed up this offer in order to keep their little boy happy.    Indeed, the father states that he sees no health problems as a result of his son’s smoking.  Yet those who know Ardi say he is unable to run around with the other two-year-old children.  In fact, it has been said that he struggles in order to simply move himself.

Apparently smoking among the youth is a huge problem in Indonesia.  There are no laws requiring age limits to those who wish to purchase and smoke cigarettes.  Unbelievably, 25% of Indonesian children between the ages of 3 and 15 have tried them.

But what of the parents?  Perhaps they are so accustomed to seeing youth smoke that they don’t see it as a problem.  It is sad that a temper tantrum alone can give enough power to little Ardi to make his parents give in to his smoking.

Our question?  Who was the first to give this little boy a cigarette in the first place?  And who actually lights the cigarettes for him?   What do you think of giving in to temper tantrums?