I get that what I’m saying sounds absolutist and simplistic. I get that there’s lots of influences on kids and peer pressure and whatnot.
But I’m also going by my own experience as a kid. You were a kid too once, yes?
My parents didn’t yell or scream or threaten. They explained. Even as a child I understood why smoking was bad and what damage it did to lungs. By the time I was old enough to consider smoking or have any opportunity to do so, I understood lung cancer, and addiction, and that it’s much easier to start something addictive than to stop. These things had been explained to me openly, without masking the ugliness of cancer or death or addiction.
So when I say TEACH your kids not to smoke, I mean that literally. Don’t preach at them or threaten them or yell at them, because it doesn’t work and kids tune it out. Don’t wait until they’re in middle school to show them the bad side of the world.
You are making up a story that fits what you believe. The other commenter is right, you dont have kids and its very apparent in how you write. Confidently having an opinion and then making up details to suit that opinion is a childish thing to do.
So telling you the FACTUAL truth of my childhood gets rejected because it doesn’t fit your narrative?
I don’t claim every kid is like me. Lots of kids won’t listen to their parents no matter what they say. Lots of kids WILL go find vapes even if you make possession punishable by death. Lots of kids will see someone older/cooler vaping and will forget everything they learned. I don’t claim every kid is like me. I’m saying that if more parents were like mine there’d be a lot less vaping. That’s all.
What you did is make an assumption- that I don’t have kids. An assumption that you have no positive evidence either way on. And thus by your assumption, you claim I am unqualified. But again, this relies on two assumptions-- 1. that I don’t have kids, and 2. that someone who has kids is incapable of understanding the nuances of dealing with kids. I reject both assertions as unprovable.
My parents didn’t yell or scream or threaten. They explained. Even as a child I understood why smoking was bad and what damage it did to lungs. By the time I was old enough to consider smoking or have any opportunity to do so, I understood lung cancer, and addiction, and that it’s much easier to start something addictive than to stop.
I also told all that stuff when I was kid, but don’t underestimate the power of youthful arrogance and the influence of an older girl who smokes and is interested in you… I ended up being a smoker for over ten years before I finally quit. Shared my own experiences with my daughter, educated her on all the reasons not to smoke. She still ended up vaping because of youthful arrogance and the influence of an older girl that was interested in her.
You can teach a horse to water but you can’t force it to not vape. Or something.
This right here. My parents explained in all the ways they could. I still ended up smoking. We’re a society and a society should have some responsibility to its kids. What happened to. The idea that it takes a village to raise a child? Some keep trying to heap all of the responsibility on parents when they’re just being asked to forego fruity flavored cancer.
Have you ever been to europe? I don’t think you have any appreciation for how successful the regulations in the US around nicotine addiction have worked.
Same thing is true in the US. Every restaurant used to have a smoking section. The diner where I grew up had ashtrays on every table and a cigarette vending machine by the entrance. And this was in a ‘nice’ town, not some backwater white trash place.
Now I can’t remember the last time I saw a restaurant that allowed smoking. Even among blue collar workers it’s MUCH less prevalent.
Vaping is somewhat more common in the US- I haven’t been to Europe in the last few years (IE since vaping really took off) so I can’t speak with authority on vaping in EU. But of my social circle- a lot more vape marijuana extracts than vape tobacco (marijuana is legal in my state of Connecticut, there’s licensed stores where you can buy weed, vape products, edibles, etc). I really only know two people that actively vape tobacco. One used Jool type pods, and I believe he quit around the time his kid was born. The other you might call an ‘enthusiast’, like she had a fancy computerized vaporizer thingy that ran on a 18650 battery and the tobacco extract came in a big bottle and she’d pour it into these thumb-sized capsules that screw onto the vaporizer gadget.
This is a comment from someone who does not have children.
I have kids and I agree with OP.
I get that what I’m saying sounds absolutist and simplistic. I get that there’s lots of influences on kids and peer pressure and whatnot.
But I’m also going by my own experience as a kid. You were a kid too once, yes?
My parents didn’t yell or scream or threaten. They explained. Even as a child I understood why smoking was bad and what damage it did to lungs. By the time I was old enough to consider smoking or have any opportunity to do so, I understood lung cancer, and addiction, and that it’s much easier to start something addictive than to stop. These things had been explained to me openly, without masking the ugliness of cancer or death or addiction.
So when I say TEACH your kids not to smoke, I mean that literally. Don’t preach at them or threaten them or yell at them, because it doesn’t work and kids tune it out. Don’t wait until they’re in middle school to show them the bad side of the world.
You are making up a story that fits what you believe. The other commenter is right, you dont have kids and its very apparent in how you write. Confidently having an opinion and then making up details to suit that opinion is a childish thing to do.
So telling you the FACTUAL truth of my childhood gets rejected because it doesn’t fit your narrative?
I don’t claim every kid is like me. Lots of kids won’t listen to their parents no matter what they say. Lots of kids WILL go find vapes even if you make possession punishable by death. Lots of kids will see someone older/cooler vaping and will forget everything they learned. I don’t claim every kid is like me. I’m saying that if more parents were like mine there’d be a lot less vaping. That’s all.
I simply said you are unqualified to be in this conversation, but you are free to continue giving your opinion.
What you did is make an assumption- that I don’t have kids. An assumption that you have no positive evidence either way on. And thus by your assumption, you claim I am unqualified. But again, this relies on two assumptions-- 1. that I don’t have kids, and 2. that someone who has kids is incapable of understanding the nuances of dealing with kids. I reject both assertions as unprovable.
Okay, I will continue to think it more likely I’m right than wrong, but thanks for the additional info.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” --Aristotle
I also told all that stuff when I was kid, but don’t underestimate the power of youthful arrogance and the influence of an older girl who smokes and is interested in you… I ended up being a smoker for over ten years before I finally quit. Shared my own experiences with my daughter, educated her on all the reasons not to smoke. She still ended up vaping because of youthful arrogance and the influence of an older girl that was interested in her.
You can teach a horse to water but you can’t force it to not vape. Or something.
This right here. My parents explained in all the ways they could. I still ended up smoking. We’re a society and a society should have some responsibility to its kids. What happened to. The idea that it takes a village to raise a child? Some keep trying to heap all of the responsibility on parents when they’re just being asked to forego fruity flavored cancer.
Have you ever been to europe? I don’t think you have any appreciation for how successful the regulations in the US around nicotine addiction have worked.
Same thing is true in the US. Every restaurant used to have a smoking section. The diner where I grew up had ashtrays on every table and a cigarette vending machine by the entrance. And this was in a ‘nice’ town, not some backwater white trash place.
Now I can’t remember the last time I saw a restaurant that allowed smoking. Even among blue collar workers it’s MUCH less prevalent.
Vaping is somewhat more common in the US- I haven’t been to Europe in the last few years (IE since vaping really took off) so I can’t speak with authority on vaping in EU. But of my social circle- a lot more vape marijuana extracts than vape tobacco (marijuana is legal in my state of Connecticut, there’s licensed stores where you can buy weed, vape products, edibles, etc). I really only know two people that actively vape tobacco. One used Jool type pods, and I believe he quit around the time his kid was born. The other you might call an ‘enthusiast’, like she had a fancy computerized vaporizer thingy that ran on a 18650 battery and the tobacco extract came in a big bottle and she’d pour it into these thumb-sized capsules that screw onto the vaporizer gadget.