SMOKING AROUND CHILDREN
You may not think it matters much, but this can have some long-lasting effects, well into their adulthood. You may even try to hide it from them, but you can't hide it 100% of the time. You can't hide the smell. You can't hide the coughing, or the cigarette butts outside (or inside).
My parents smoked around me as a child. There were ashtrays scattered throughout the house, as it was not considered such an outrageous thing to do back then like it is today. Back then, more people used tobacco, and it was more socially acceptable. They also smoked in the car.
Did you know that you can cause asthma in a child by smoking around them? They might not get it right away, but they can develop it later on in life. If they never used tobacco, who is to blame? Surely the years of being around secondhand smoke had something to do with it.
Also, think of this...
If you're a parent, and you don't see any real reason to NOT light up around your kids, what's going to stop them from growing up and being nicotine addicts themselves? Children view their parents as role models, first and foremost. If all they're being taught at home is that cigarettes are OK, even if the parents say it is bad, how is that going to affect the kids later on in life? What will they think of their childhood?
When I became a young adult, in high school, nicotine was the first thing I experimented with. Why? It was the most accessible, because everyone was trying it, and I vastly remember from childhood that my parents used it, too. So, it can't be THAT bad, right?
Of course, once I tried it, I LOVED it. But maybe if my parents were 100% against the idea of smoking from the very beginning throughout all my life it would've made me think twice before experimenting with it.
When kids (or young adults) first try cigarettes, yes, it has a lot to do with pressure from other people their age. That is just a part of growing up.
But there is also a great percentage of that mentality that stems from childhood, and what their parents taught them as a kid. If they smoked and drank around them all the time and didn't care about it at all, do you think that would have no effect whatsoever on them as they grew up? Of course it would. It would have a HUGE effect.
Parents who are continuously lighting up are the worst role models. They probably couldn't care less that their kids, who are now all grown up, have converted into addicts themselves. Why? Because they are still do it. They can't quit and they don't want to.
It's really a shame, because nicotine is one of the most addictive substances in the world, and it will kill you eventually. Do you want to teach your children that tobacco, of any kind, is OK? Are you OK with the idea of your kids being highly addicted to it and slowly killing themselves? Think about it.
