Sigh... The ANTZ strikes again. This time, in my own family. My sister in law (my husband's, brother in law's sister) is a social worker and must have drunk a gallon of the Kool Aide the Antz have been serving. As such, she took it upon herself to inform me at a family event that I abusing my children and putting them in danger by keeping e-liquids in the house. This, as she smoked a cigarette at a party with kids running everywhere. Not to mention, the lighter and pack of cigs she kept on the table in front of her, within full view and reach of every child there. My mod was in my hands, as it always is, and I didn't bring bottles of liquid. 
In the interest of not having an all out argument over the dinner table, I told her I was aware that e-liquid should be swallowed, and kept it out of reach of my children. We keep it where we keep prescriptions and over the counter drugs. I figured she'd back off if she knew I was taking the proper precaution that any parent with two brain cells to rub together would. I was wrong.
She continued on and on, giving me every story she heard of some parent, somewhere, letting their kids drink e-liquid. The longer she went on, the louder she got. Soon enough, every single family member was listening in, as she used these stories to blast MY parenting skills. Apparently, I'm now responsible for every mistake any parent, anywhere, has ever made with regards to e-liquid and children. I'm not sure how this came to be. First, many of these "true" (I have my doubts) stories are regarding parents who were obviously already under investigation by CPS for other things. I somehow doubt that these parents are truly representative of all the responsible parents out there. Second, there are a slew of other "dangerous" things within ANY household a parent should keep their children away from. Household cleaners, electrical outlets, kitchen knives, pharmaceutical drugs, even plastic shopping bags to name just a fraction of them.
I pointed all of this out to her. I pointed out that my son has lived to 8 without ingesting anything he shouldn't, and I doubt he'd start now. Considering my success with him, I'm fully confident of my ability to continue to keep my soon to be 3 yr old daughter from ingesting anything SHE shouldn't as well. My kids are very obviously NOT being abused in any way, shape or form, nor are they not being neglected. They are well fed, clean (as clean as one can keep an active toddler anyway), relatively uninjured (do people count scraped knees as neglect these days?), receive proper medical attention when needed and go for regular check up appointments. She knows all of this and she knows us very well. We always got along previous to this. She knows I'm not the kind of parent I'm sure she deals with at work all day!
It essentially ended with her stating that a lot of parents don't know to keep vape related things away from their kids, and it's making for a dangerous situation. As though parents like my husband and myself were responsible for other families? She also mentioned the one death that has been tied to e-liquid. I filled her in on the part of the story that the media tends to leave out. That it was an intentional suicide where the person injected themselves with e-liquid. Something I doubt my 8 year old and 2 year old would do. Also filled her in on the fact that many of her stats were based on pure liquid nicotine. Not the e-liquid most vape with only 24 to 36 mg at the highest, vapeable levels. No comments from other family members, who were listening in thankfully. It really saddens me that she's a social worker, working for the state.... Sorry for the rant.
In the interest of not having an all out argument over the dinner table, I told her I was aware that e-liquid should be swallowed, and kept it out of reach of my children. We keep it where we keep prescriptions and over the counter drugs. I figured she'd back off if she knew I was taking the proper precaution that any parent with two brain cells to rub together would. I was wrong.She continued on and on, giving me every story she heard of some parent, somewhere, letting their kids drink e-liquid. The longer she went on, the louder she got. Soon enough, every single family member was listening in, as she used these stories to blast MY parenting skills. Apparently, I'm now responsible for every mistake any parent, anywhere, has ever made with regards to e-liquid and children. I'm not sure how this came to be. First, many of these "true" (I have my doubts) stories are regarding parents who were obviously already under investigation by CPS for other things. I somehow doubt that these parents are truly representative of all the responsible parents out there. Second, there are a slew of other "dangerous" things within ANY household a parent should keep their children away from. Household cleaners, electrical outlets, kitchen knives, pharmaceutical drugs, even plastic shopping bags to name just a fraction of them.
I pointed all of this out to her. I pointed out that my son has lived to 8 without ingesting anything he shouldn't, and I doubt he'd start now. Considering my success with him, I'm fully confident of my ability to continue to keep my soon to be 3 yr old daughter from ingesting anything SHE shouldn't as well. My kids are very obviously NOT being abused in any way, shape or form, nor are they not being neglected. They are well fed, clean (as clean as one can keep an active toddler anyway), relatively uninjured (do people count scraped knees as neglect these days?), receive proper medical attention when needed and go for regular check up appointments. She knows all of this and she knows us very well. We always got along previous to this. She knows I'm not the kind of parent I'm sure she deals with at work all day!
It essentially ended with her stating that a lot of parents don't know to keep vape related things away from their kids, and it's making for a dangerous situation. As though parents like my husband and myself were responsible for other families? She also mentioned the one death that has been tied to e-liquid. I filled her in on the part of the story that the media tends to leave out. That it was an intentional suicide where the person injected themselves with e-liquid. Something I doubt my 8 year old and 2 year old would do. Also filled her in on the fact that many of her stats were based on pure liquid nicotine. Not the e-liquid most vape with only 24 to 36 mg at the highest, vapeable levels. No comments from other family members, who were listening in thankfully. It really saddens me that she's a social worker, working for the state.... Sorry for the rant.
