Remember Public Decorum When Vaping

It's a subject that hits close to home, because you see, I'm a restauranteur and a 10 to 15 ml per day vaper who doesn't allow vaping in the restaurants he runs.

On one hand, it breaks my heart that I can't bring myself to allow it, but on the other hand, in falls perfectly in line with the hospitality we intend to provide every guest. The decision doesn't make it a lesser restaurant to experience, nor does it prove any diminished endearment to those guests who would like to vape at the table. The decision was made using the same criteria on which we've based other decisions.

If someone's behaviour or choices infringe too much on other guests enjoying their time, then we endeavour to stop it. Let's be honest, most every e-juice emits some aroma/odour to some great or lesser degree. A neighbouring table that has to endure vapour clouds while they're eating has every bit as much reason to be dismayed as a table beside some pubescent boy drenched in cheap cologne.

We have previously...

  • Told a couple (engrossed in their phone and iPad) that they would have to take their order to go since they refused to do anything about their shrieking 5 year old for over 10 minutes. The poor boy was trying to get some attention from his oblivious parents, but other guests were glaring and asking that we do something even as we were making our way to their table.
  • Asked a small group of men to supervise their profane language in our family restaurant, or they would have to leave.
  • Told a couple that their overly zealous public displays of affection were inappropriate in the public setting of our dining room.
  • Asked a small group of friends waiting for a table to shift a few feet further as they were constantly bumping the bar stools of other waiting customers.
We do these things to avoid customers going "vigilante" on each other, and to keep some semblance of public decorum.

I don't think it's something anyone should feel is worthy of a "fight" with the restaurant. As a matter of fact, I think taking that stance is absurd.

When in public, I believe there needs to be a certain amount of mutual respect that we accord our fellow villager. For example, here is a short list of other things I try to avoid doing in public at all costs (avoidances that I would appreciate more people to practice):


  • wearing exorbitant amounts of personal aromatic products (cologne, perfume, etc.)
  • having deplorable personal hygiene so as to choke a maggot at 100 yards
  • yelling/cursing loudly within a public space
  • bumping/shoving within a confined area
  • lollygagging while in a queue (gas stations, grocery store checkouts, green lights, etc.)
  • not removing yourself and your squealing infant to a secluded area
  • being gratuitously flatulent in a confined space (plane, train, automobile)
  • allowing your children to point at strangers inquisitively
  • commenting aloud regarding the events taking place on a movie screen

...to name a few.

I'm certainly not suggesting that vaping is as reprehensible as some of these other things, but since to some people it might be, I refrain.

If you can sit through a movie, or your kid's dance recital, or any number of other events without a smoke/vape, certainly dinner won't kill you.

Comments

Duane, I commend you for being a fine, upstanding human. I believe you and I are very close in age. When I was growing up, all these things you speak of NOT to do in public were taught to me in school and by my parents. Today's youth on the other hand have been taught that "freedom" is synonymous with complete and utter anarchy. This is the fault of Gen X (my generation) and Gen Y.

Society if falling apart very quickly and as a society we are and will continue to suffer greatly for this decline. The comment above from Galen is a perfect example of the stupidity of too many in our society today.

I see more and more younger folks vaping indoors more and more and it angers me to no end. But there is nothing I can do about it. We don't even really know what is in the vapor so we don't know if the secondhand vapor is unhealthy so for that reason alone it should not be allowed in public spaces. However, especially indoors in places like a restaurant, it should never be allowed because even if it turns out it is completely harmless, it is completely rude because vapor, just like smoke, invades the private space of others and it is beyond anyone's control.
 

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