Do you Vape around your children?

[genxblacksmith]

I have three children aged 11 years, 9 years and 4 months. They have grown up watching me fight my addiction. I never smoked within their eyesight or in the house. They cheered me on when I beat it back for a few months and even a year at a time. They raise hell along with my wife when I falter, sneak off and return stinking of it.

So now I vape. I explained to them what it is and how it works. "Whatever Dad, just don't smoke" is the short story. I haven't vaped in front of my children. I like the quiet outside break. I do vape in the house after I put them to bed and still feel a bit naughty about it. I do vape when I'm around my dad and I never smoked around him. I still don't vape in public. I almost vaped when the kids were in the car with me today.

Looking forward to lowering my nic levels in the coming months. Looking forward to not needing nic at all. Looking forward to not needing gear around me.

 

[Forkeh]

Well I think it's a good idea to be cautious about vaping with your kids. Not that I think it sets a bad example. As kids get older, they pretty much do what they want. Whether you smoked or not, if they want to smoke, they're going to smoke, if not, they won't.

The only concern I'd really have is about the nicotine in vapor. Though I know it dissipates quickly, we really don't know how much second hand nicotine we're giving off with these things. Maybe a lot, maybe none. Perhaps it's for the best not to vape around them.

 

[Ladypixel]

My daughter hated us smoking. We smoked around her regularly as she grew up, but never in the house - outdoors, in the garage perhaps, but never inside the house.

However, we did smoke in the car until California law made it illegal to smoke with minors in the car, and then when she turned 18, we gradually slipped back into the habit of smoking in the car again.

Her complaining of smelling like cigarette smoke (now, mind you, it's a valid complaint for an 18-year-old nonsmoker to make) was what caused us to pick up ecigs, although originally it was "only for use in the car". But it changed everything. My husband and I have now both quit smoking and we vape instead. She does still on occasion complain about the aroma of a couple of our juice choices if the car's windows are completely rolled up and we're both vaping heavy (which isn't a common thing, but has happened like twice in the last month), but most of the time, she doesn't even smell it. She absolutely doesn't smell it in the house. She has zero interest whatsoever in vaping, although she doesn't particularly care if we do it in front of her... she just doesn't want to hear us talking about it, because it just doesn't interest her.

Now, admittedly, my kid's over 18. It's a little different when you're talking little kids. If you enjoy the outside break, take the outside break. But would I have vaped around her while she was growing up? Yes, because I did smoke around her, and vaping would have been a thousand times better than the secondhand smoke that she experienced.

But if your kids have been separated from your smoking habits, there's very little reason for them to see your vaping habits if you'd prefer to keep them private. Keep that break, keep the separation there, and work on lowering your nicotine down to zero. Take it one step at a time.

Will it traumatize them to see it? Doubtful. But it's a judgment call you have to make, based on how you and your kids interact, and how your family interacts. It may well be a person-by-person call.

I wish you all the luck in the world, though.

 

[genxblacksmith]

Sweet of ya Ladypixel.

 

[ShogaNinja]

My two cents - take it for what it's worth or ignore me completely. Whatever you do, don't take it personally. I'm an opinionated person:

There is no danger of nicotine inhalation by your kids UNLESS you aren't inhaling. If you are one of those cigar puffer style hitters and you let that vapor into the air un-inhaled then it's loaded. If you can smell the flavor of your ejuice then it's loaded. If you get a comment like OOOH that smells good, you have a problem, houston. Some people say that you only get 10%-40% of the nicotine through vaping. Dispersed amongst your entire house that's negligible. What you breathe out is only water vapor though and as such is not harmful. Don't believe me? Take a nice dark juice and breathe out into a folded up tissue. NOTHING. Do that with a cigarette once and see what you get... If that doesn't make you want to quit nothing will! Besides, nicotine is about as dangerous as caffeine when you disregard its addictive properties.

Your biggest concern should be locking up your ejuice and keeping your ecig out of their reach at all times. If a young child smelled chocolate juice and drank it - it could kill them. If you make DIY juice and have pure nicotine solution around it's an even greater hazard. It should definitely be mixed in a well ventilated area with no children anywhere near it. Lastly, I would say that regardless of all I have just said that any sort of addictive behavior in front of your children increases their likelihood of becoming addicted to things themselves. If they see that you have a weakness then they will think well, screw it, my parents couldn't hack it how am I any different? My mom smoked and I swore I never would and here I am. I noticed as a child that after a while I started to enjoy the smell of her second hand smoke. This is bad! I don't have any children but if I did I would want them to think of me as Superman - the man with the plan who can do anything! In short, I'd go vape in the garage or in your den or bedroom or bathroom or what have you, and after they sleep vape on the couch but not in front of them unless say I was on a long road trip and there was no alternative and only after a long talk about it. That's my opinion. I hope it helps.

Edit: thanks for the likes!

 

[beebster]

I would say if you think you kids are sophisticated enough to handle it after having explained it to them, and with continuing education they perhaps will be alright and feel happy that it IS better then smoking. at least as far as we know. lol.

 

[Andante51]

You posed a very vexing question regarding vaping around young children. I carry a ton of guilt for the years we smoked around my now mid-20's son. I started smoking at age 14, and my parents (like many then) were heavy smokers. Of course that was a long time ago when smoking was very widely viewed as a very 'cool' thing to do, and many of the health risks were not known. However, my son does not smoke, always hated it, and would never even consider smoking. Who knows - maybe getting an in-depth experience of how awful it smelled, and the intense ill health effects smoking wreaked on me, helped insure he would never be tempted to come near them. As for the teenage 'rebellion' thing, smoking was surely never going to be an avenue he would explore in that regard.

Although there are still far too many young people who start smoking, thankfully for many youngsters these days smoking is viewed as a very uncool thing to do. I have a few non-smoking friends whose kids did start smoking, and have sometimes wondered if it wasn't partly because of that teen drive for independence thing; or that they didn't have the up-close and disgusting experience of just how awful the things can become once you are hooked that my son did. We sometimes refer to this jokingly as 'negative parenting'.

What I will never be able to understand is the anti-vaping forces who argue that e-cigs should be banned because youngsters may view them as less dangerous than smoking real cigs, and/or that they are more 'enticing' because there are so many 'non-tobacco' flavors available. I would like to ask those advancing that theory who are are parents -- if your child was intent upon trying smoking, would you rather they inhale a vaporized liquid, or buy real cigarettes? I can't fathom a parent wanting to even contemplate option #2.

 

[otrpu]

If I had any I would. JMHO

Cheers,
otrpu

 

[Nocturnalpriest]

Same for me, I don't have kids, but I don't stop vaping when there are kids around me. I keep asking their parents if it bothers them, of course. If there's a danger with "passive" vaping, we should all stop breathing at once (what about pollution then ???). An old study (THE BACTERICIDAL ACTION OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL VAPOR ON MICROORGANISMS SUSPENDED IN AIR) established that vaporized PG is killing baterias in the air, which means it could be a good thing to vape inside

 

[Topper]

Everything around us is much or less poison.
My opinion is that vaping is less bad thing we can do around our child. In other case, must not start the car engine when there is kids!

 

[inuyasha.rules]

Its a catch 22. They may think that since it doesn't stink and is safer its ok to vape and get addicted. On the other hand they might see your struggles and want to avoid inhaling it period. As far as caffeine is concerned its addictive too, just to a lesser extent. I have seen people more addicted to caffeine than I ever was to smoking. Id say go for it and explain that its bad but that its the lesser of 2 evils,

 

[tamarahvt]

I vape in front of my kids. I have a 21 year old, a 14 year old and a 19 month old. The older kids are thrilled that I'm off the analogs and, hopefully, I'll be off the nic completely by the time the little one is old enough to understand what I'm doing.

 

[stahrman]

I vape in front of my 13 and 15 year old, but then again I smoked analogs around them also....which I'm not proud of!!

 

[minitater]

Remember the old public service announcement on TV where the guy catches his kid smoking pot.
Whre did you learn that! From you daddy! from you !

 

[dlsw]

I have a 20 yo son and vape around him, but he is old enough to understand. (And really happy that I quit analogs) I think you and your wife need to decide what is best for your family. It is a conundrum because if you go outside, it makes it kind of mysterious and if you stay in the house, you might be modeling behavior that you don't want them to emulate.

 

[ctourtelot]

My kids hated my smoking and were really proud of me when I quit for 2 years, but I picked it back up again and was a closet smoker for a few years before finding vaping (though my son knew I was still at it..not sure about my daughter) My kids are now 16 and 20. I vape openly in front of both of them. My daughter likes the smell lol. My son actually picked up smoking after I started vaping. I still haven't figured that one out, but he'd moved into a frat house and went a little nuts anyway.

I've since gotten him vaping and I hope he continues it as he's moving back out of the house today. My daughter, thankfully, still hates smoking so there's hope lol.

 

[NeoLythic]

I can honestly say that neither of my kids have ever seen me with a cigarette in my hand, and I went through painful and elaborate detox measures before ever going near them when I was on the coffin nails.

Now that I'm on a PV I don't have to de-stink-a-fy myself, but I still make sure not to been seen vaping by the kids. I just don't want to take the chance of them picking up the habit, even if vaping is deemed more safe.

 

[Los Marauder]

I'm not a technalogical kind of guy. My kids on the otherhand know when a new color buton is added on any gizmo.(all kids do ya know) So when the cigars whent out and vape came in, even they compleetely understood the value of vaping. As vaping gets more exposure more people will understand its benefits, especialy the young. If my kids evolve my bad habits, I realy have to say, thank god for vaping. Hopefull the habit they evolve first will be to never let a mokey get on your back but when it does, rid yourself of a monkey on your back at the first chance you get. The "learn from example" goes the direction you teach it. If my kids see me vape they know I made the best choice of the options I had.

 

[pmoraldo]

I vape around my kids and in the house but thats me

 

[CrunchyGeek]

I have a 6, almost 3, and one year old. We never smoked in the house, but were regularly going out on the front stoop to smoke analogs, and if we all were outside we smoked around them. When the kids saw our new PVs this morning, we explained to the two older ones that we're trying really hard to get off the icky cigarettes, and that these tools will help us. We repeated over and over that they are NEVER to touch them, and if they see one where the baby can get it, to come get us right away. (The one year old has just discovered how to climb - our kits are kept on top of the highest bookshelf, about 6 1/2 feet up, but we still need to be careful with our e-cigs!). The way we see it, vaping is along the lines of having a cocktail around kids - it's okay for them to see mama and daddy drinking a glass of wine or beer responsibly, and we always teach them that it is a grownup activity and to never touch beer/wine/mixed drinks, even if they're within reach.

I'd rather have them see me vape in the house than see me go outside for a smoke and hurt my health, so we aren't going to hide it from them at all. If nothing else, they'll happily call us out if we start smoking analogs again!