Ken Ulman, take note. You've made three future voters happy with the latest anti-smoking regulation in Howard County.

Actually, two future voters. Our 11 year-old was worried when I told him about the ban on smoking in county parks. "Does this mean Dad won't take us to the park anymore?"

Yes, my husband and I smoke. I'm not proud of it, but it's a fact.

The kids do not like it.

They shudder in disbelief when I tell them about how their grandparents used to smoke in the 1970s—in the car with the heat on and the windows up, with me and their aunt and uncle in the back.

I played at smoking in my late teens. By the time I was 21, I was up to a pack and a half a day. I quit at 26 when I was pregnant with my oldest, but as soon as he was born I fired up again. Outside, and a lot less, but still smoking.

With each pregnancy I quit, and with each child I started anew. I've quit for my own health a couple of times, one time over a year. But sooner or later I shamefacedly light up again.

I don't mind the kids scolding me on the rare occasions when they catch me with a cigarette. I even encourage them to rat me out to my sister, an outspoken anti-smoking activist.

The fewer places I'm allowed to smoke, the less I smoke. So the new rule doesn't bother me much.

But it does bother me when my kids and their friends lay on exaggerated coughs and sighs of “Pee-YEW!” when they encounter smokers in public places.

"You may not like it," I tell them, "but people have a right to smoke where it's not against the rules. It doesn't give you the right to be rude. It's still legal.

"If somebody smelled bad and you were walking next to them, would that give you the right to tell them they stink?"

Of course, second-hand smoke has real health effects that go far beyond stinkiness. This begs an obvious question from my daughter: "Why is it even legal if they know it's bad for you?"

I have a pretty simple explanation for that.

"I guess because it doesn't make people intoxicated—you know, drunk," I add for the benefit of my 8-year-old. "People don't jump off of buildings thinking they can fly or start fights when they smoke tobacco."

My explanation is as simplistic as it is simple, unfortunately. Sometimes when I discuss smoking and drinking with the older kids, I talk about the network of business and political interests involved in selling and regulating legal and illegal drugs. But that's a little much for my youngest.

As for the park, my husband and I disagree. "It's discrimination against the smokers," he protested when I told him about the new regulation. "It's outside! How they can regulate outside?"

But he's still planning to take them to the park, just the same.