Two Households, Two Different Atmospheres

As you can probably imagine, living in two different houses isn't easy. Of course, neither house is the same. In my case, my houses seem like polar opposites to me. I would be lying if i said that I didn't prefer one house over the other. Not the parent, mind you, the atmosphere of the house.

My Dad's house is always clean, and the air is clean. My Mom's house, although it really isn't dirty, feels dirty to me. That probably doesn't make much sense, but when you add the factor of cigarette smoke, then it might become more clear.

My Dad's house is untainted by cigarette smoke. No one has smoked in my Dad's house since we moved in 2004. The people before us were not smokers, so that adds several more years onto the four years that my family has lived there. The air is clean there, therefore making the house feel cleaner.

My mom's house is the opposite of my Dad's in the regards to cigarette smoke. I can't escape it. The house reeks of the offending odor. My clothes smell horrible because the smell attaches to the fibers. My mom smokes a lot, my stepdad is a chain smoker. He sits downstairs and smokes cigarette after cigarette. I stay in my room most of the time because no one is allowed to come in my room with a lit cigarette.

Well there, problem solved. Stay in your room and you don't have to smell it. I wish that were the case, but unfortunately it's not. The smoke is so heavy in my house that the smoke is pulled through the return vents and is then pulled throughout the house. I know exactly when the vent in my room starts blowing because I can smell the smoke. And trust me, it is one of the worst smells.

I used to choke to death when I would walk into the hallway bathroom. (mind you, there are three bathrooms in my house) I would always be so unfortunate to walk into the bathroom not long after my stepdad exited. It's really sad when you can't put down your cigarette long enough to go the bathroom. The smoke gets trapped in the bathroom with no way out because my stepdad -for whatever reason- closes the door when he comes out.

Now, the reason I used the past tense when I said "I 'used' to choke to death " was because he has gotten better. But sometimes I still catch it. But I never understood why it was a problem in the first place. He has his own bathroom in his bedroom AND in the basement. He could smoke in those bathrooms until his heart's content without it bother someone. But I guess that would have been too much to ask. I have to breath in the stuff all the time anyway, what's a little extra smoke while I pee?

My mom doesn't seem to understand why I don't want my friends to come over to my mom's house. The truth is, I'm embarrassed. My house reeks and feels so filthy to me because of the smoke (and the majority of my friends have non-smoking parents) that I don't want my friends coming over. Several of my friends have bad smoke allergies. They can't come over to the house because of its rancidity.

The smoke makes it harder to breathe. I don't have asthma, but my brother does, and yet my mom and stepdad still smoke in the house as if it doens't affect anyone other than themselves. My brother's doctor, just by listening to his breathing knew that someone smoked around him constantly. The doctor had TOLD my parents not to smoke around my brother. My dad doesn't, my mom and stepdad still do.

I've noticed that as I help around both houses that I tend to prefer my stepmom's methods of cleaning over my mom's. For some reason, my stepmom's methods feel.....cleaner. My mom always tells me that she makes me do chores because she's teaching me, yet I feel like -watching my stepmom clean- I'm not learni ng the proper way to thoroughly clean.

It's amazing how the atmosphere of one house can feel so different from another. Air really isn't just air. It's not the same wherever you go. Sometimes the difference can be smalll, other times big.

Well I'm out,
Jay~Jay