Actually, only the spouse was THAT dumb and smoked in the same room they were in. His excuse was "the fan's on". I only smoked in the kitchen and with one of those "smokeless" ashtrays(kids weren't allowed in the kitchen at all until they were over 2).
I think they do realize it, even if my son thinks I'm evil because I actually do have some rules like do the chores they're supposed to do and let us know where they are.
I was a "bad mom" because I didn't give them cell phones until my daughter got one in 9th grade
Now parents are handing them to their just-out-of-diapers little angels so they can further hover...
Parents need to remember that kids need to have fun, they need to explore and they need to know what they can do. Yea, there are bad things, always was, always will be. When my mom was 3, in 1933, she was abducted, beaten and pissed on and left for dead-her mother coddled her after that.... when my dad was 5, in 1934, a man held him underwater trying to drown him while swimming at Coney Island, but that didn't stop him from going back...when my sister was 7, in 1964, she was approached and almost abducted while walking home from school, but guess what? We all still walked to school afterwards.
I fell on my bike when I was 12, skidded on my right side and burned nasty roadrash holes in my knee and thigh, but the next day, albeit bandaged, I was back on my bike.
WTF has happened??? When did overbearing fear override caution and common sense and teaching?