A school support worker has faced backlash from a parent after they were spotted smoking near to her child who they spend time with, and now the kid wants to try smoking themselves. The mum took to the 'Am I Being Unreasonable?' forum on Mumsnet to explain that her child is in primary school and has spent time with support workers in the past where things have been fine but the most recent one has caused some problems.
In the post, she explained: "My young primary school aged child has support workers that take them out and about.
"We see quite a few different ones and have never had an issue but there is one who turns up 5/10 minutes late quite regularly."
However, on top of being a few minutes late, the parent was not happy to see what they were doing nearby.
"On one occasion I went outside with my child to wait as the support worker being past normal collection time was unsettling them," she explained.
"When outside we saw the support worker by their car smoking which I wasn't very impressed by as they were already late but let it go."
However, in recent days the child has started to get more inquisitive and has been asking their mum if they can try smoking as they have seen their support worker do it near him.
The mum explained: "Lately my child has begun to make comments on wanting to smoke and vape like the support worker does and is asking about it a lot, although they have said the support worker doesn't "blow it at them" but blows it in the other direction."
As a parent, the mum went on by saying that she feels uncomfortable about the behaviour of the support worker and is curious as to what she should do.
She said: "I'm not really happy about this as I hate smoking and vaping and don't really want it done around my child."
In response, many people have been quick to support the mum with one person writing: "It's not appropriate for them to be doing this when caring for a child. Of course they should wait until their shift is over. I would complain about it."
While another said: "I'm a smoker and I find this appalling behaviour by the social worker."
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