Buying your kids E-Cigarettes

[espkh123]

To the mods:
Don't know what sub-forum this should be posted in, if you find a better spot please send it over (and remove this line)

To the parents of "little smokers" and to my fellow vapers: (pardon my humor and sarcasm in this article - got to make it atleast a LITTLE interesting)

To start off I will tell you a little about myself.
While I may be only 18 years old, I have been smoking since I was 13. I know, I am stupid.
I wanted to quit for awhile because I was tired of trying to hide this fact from certain friends, parents, and teachers.
A few months after my 18th birthday I decided that I needed to start acting like an adult (for the most part) and try to kick the habit.
I found vaping to be a good substitute to cigarettes and ended up here
(If you want to know more about me........ which I am sure you don't and probably skipped this part... I have an intro thread somewhere....)

Anyways, to the main reason we are here.
I have been noticing recently a lot of kids walking around with their little egos and innokin APVs.
At first I was thinking it is a lot better than smoking (health wise) but it still bothers me knowing these kids are getting their hands on these trying to act "Kewl" - (and it feels like trying to get these banned aswell, damn kids)

I frequent a shop near me since it is 5 minutes from my house (there about every day with the regulars)
I see parents coming in with there 16-17 year old kids buying them mods. From regulated to mechanicals.
By that point in my life I was a pack a day smoker. So I understand they have an addiction (well some of them anyways).
I usually applaud the parents for getting their kids on vaping IF AND ONLY IF they are truly addicted.

A few nights ago an older woman came in with her "kids" who had to be no older than 12.
They were getting her to buy them a Sentinel clone, igo-w, and 0mg nicotine juice.
PARTY FOUL!
Who in their right minds would actually get their 12 year old kids (who probably never smoked to begin with) an ecig? Let alone a mechanical mod?
To which the owner of the store told her there is no way she is selling this to her.

The mother probably went home and ordered them online for her kids.

It just blew my mind that there are actually people getting these for their own kids whose gonads haven't even dropped.

Where do you draw the line for kids getting these?
-I understand trying to get your 16-17 year old who has been smoking for a few years one. I can follow the logic. I don't support it I just understand.
-I DONT understand how you can get it for kids that young.




............

Let me finish by saying this.
I vape all the time. I in no way want to use kids as an argument against vaping rights.

Where do you (or store owners who see this) draw the line?
What if you found out your kid has been smoking cigarettes and is addicted at the age of 16 or 17? How would you go about making them quit? (NO! Beating them or locking them in the basement is not an appropriate answer.)







**To the parents whose kids are trying to make them get them one of these**
Understand these are being regulated as tobacco products. There are better options to quitting them getting them into this.

 

[ScottP]

This is why the government keeps trying to regulate "stupid". Unfortunately stupid can no more be regulated than it can be fixed.

 

[Recycled Roadkill]

Today while stopped at a light I watched a high school kid in the crosswalk smoking a cigarette. I'd have preferred to see him vaping.

I thought i'd post that for what value it's worth.

 

[Racehorse]

There are still behavioral things like inhaling, lip pursing, taking vapor into mouth, blowing out plumes, etc. that are "habits" or can become habits, so I myself do not advocate getting kids on to vaping unless they are about to start smoking or are already smoking and looking for harm reduction.

I have always stuck with the original idea that vaping is ----------- harm reduction.

OTOH, its none of my biz what parents do with their own kids. (If it was, I would regal you with stories about the stuff I see in shopping carts at the food store, then I look at the pasty complexions, dull eyes, and blubbery look of these young children (and young children shouldn't LOOK like that) and I just shudder. )

 

[ScottP]

...then I look at the pasty complexions, dull eyes, and blubbery look of these young children (and young children shouldn't LOOK like that) and I just shudder. )

Yeah kind of reminds me of the humans in Wall-E.

 

[meanckz]

I started smoking cigarettes at 11 yrs of age...very early...it wasn't daily smoking (by about 12 or 13yrs it'd become a regular/daily thing)...more like a weekend things when hanging out with friends same age and older...so, who's to say those kids in the store haven't been smoking and mom was trying to help them stop before it becomes a life-altering/threatening habit.
just saying

 

[ScottP]

I started smoking cigarettes at 11 yrs of age...very early...it wasn't daily smoking (by about 12 or 13yrs it'd become a regular/daily thing)...more like a weekend things when hanging out with friends same age and older...so, who's to say those kids in the store haven't been smoking and mom was trying to help them stop before it becomes a life-altering/threatening habit.
just saying

I doubt it if they are buying zero nic.

 

[Topacka]

I gave my little brother (16) my first ego battery when I replaced it. He was (say it again, was) a smoker, I caught him first when he was 14. When I decided to start vaping he always wanted to use my pv, deal was he could if he did it instead of having a smoke. Gave him mine when I upgraded along with a couple clearos and some juice (gummi bear and bubblegum, anybody laughing?). He likes it more than smoking and doesn't feel like it's something to be ashamed of.

Point is, I'm glad he's vaping, but I've had his friends parents and random people in public give me a serious scowl, nobody wants kids using nicotine, not one person.

Here in Washington it's illegal for minors to buy vaping gear, and that's the way it should be, regardless of how much harder it makes it for teens who are addicts to quit using e cigs.

I feel like I trailed off there... Oh well.

 

[MorpheusPA]

What if you found out your kid has been smoking cigarettes and is addicted at the age of 16 or 17? How would you go about making them quit? (NO! Beating them or locking them in the basement is not an appropriate answer.)

Well, you just shot my parenting techniques in the ...., didn't you? Whippersnapper. Why in my day, our parents tossed us in the closet and threw in some occasional bourbon and ramen noodles. And we liked it. You kids with your fresh air and food.

I have no kids. Were I to discover that my nieces had picked up a smoking habit, I'd offer to pay for their starter eGo systems to get them off the coffin nails.

Were they to ask for one and didn't have a habit, the answer would be an unfettered "No." With an explanation as to why it's a bad idea.







**To the parents whose kids are trying to make them get them one of these**
Understand these are being regulated as tobacco products. There are better options to quitting them getting them into this.[/QUOTE]

 

[espkh123]

Well, you just shot my parenting techniques in the ...., didn't you? Whippersnapper. Why in my day, our parents tossed us in the closet and threw in some occasional bourbon and ramen noodles. And we liked it. You kids with your fresh air and food.

I have no kids. Were I to discover that my nieces had picked up a smoking habit, I'd offer to pay for their starter eGo systems to get them off the coffin nails.

Were they to ask for one and didn't have a habit, the answer would be an unfettered "No." With an explanation as to why it's a bad idea.







**To the parents whose kids are trying to make them get them one of these**
Understand these are being regulated as tobacco products. There are better options to quitting them getting them into this.

[/QUOTE]

I knew that was coming.
I bet you had to walk to school, 5 miles, in the rain - snow - and heat, and both ways were uphill..
.

How old are the nieces you would buy them for? If you dont mind me asking.

 

[vampyre74]

You know, even if kids start smoking as a pre-teen, I doubt they are walking into stores and buying cigarettes, so why should vaping be different?

 

[espkh123]

I started smoking cigarettes at 11 yrs of age...very early...it wasn't daily smoking (by about 12 or 13yrs it'd become a regular/daily thing)...more like a weekend things when hanging out with friends same age and older...so, who's to say those kids in the store haven't been smoking and mom was trying to help them stop before it becomes a life-altering/threatening habit.
just saying

With kids that young they probably aren't physically addicted. It is all just mental. Or just a desire to rebel.
Or if they are "addicted" because they smoked for maybe less than a year it wouldn't be hard for them to quit cold turkey.

Dont know your situation know, just saying from experience.
Hell kids probably don't even know what addicted is. Unless you throw in a cell phone or video games.

 

[MorpheusPA]

I knew that was coming.
I bet you had to walk to school, 5 miles, in the rain - snow - and heat, and both ways were uphill..

Please. By that time we hitched the horse to the buggy. I'm not that old.

How old are the nieces you would buy them for? If you dont mind me asking.

It was more of a theoretical. They're currently 13, 9, and 3, so I don't foresee this as being an issue for some time yet, if ever.

 

[espkh123]

You know, even if kids start smoking as a pre-teen, I doubt they are walking into stores and buying cigarettes, so why should vaping be different?

Well because stores are permitted by law to sell vape tools to these minors as long as they are accompanied by someone over 18.
But that isn't the problem, if parents want to be bad parents and buy their pre-pubescent children these then by all means.
Some parents think there is not problem buying their kids mechanical mods with 0mg juice because there is no drug involved.

When I was a pre-teen I walked into stores and bought my own packs though.
Being 6 feet tall by 15 helped with that.

 

[espkh123]

It was more of a theoretical. They're currently 13, 9, and 3, so I don't foresee this as being an issue for some time yet, if ever.

one year older than the kids I saw getting their mother to buy them a mech mod.
That just blew my mind and probably their hand off while thinking they can sub ohm.

 

[MorpheusPA]

one year older than the kids I saw getting their mother to buy them a mech mod.
That just blew my mind and probably their hand off while thinking they can sub ohm.

Tell me about it. I almost remember the first moon landing (I did see it live, but I was too young to remember it, really) and I won't sub-ohm...

 

[espkh123]

Tell me about it. I almost remember the first moon landing (I did see it live, but I was too young to remember it, really) and I won't sub-ohm...

You don't know how much I wanted to say
"You'll blow your hand off, kid!"
references to classics

 

[OBDave]

My knee-jerk reaction is "Hell no, my kid's not getting an e-cig! Or a real cig, for that matter!"

But she's only 10. And she's seen the problems her mom and dad have gone through for years dealing with our smoking, as well as the transition we've made over the last 8 months or so - not going outside a half-dozen times a night, not telling her she has to stay away from us for the next few minutes because we're smoking (I would never let her get near a real cig under my watch), not using Dad's 2-3 minutes of morning hacking cough as her alarm clock. And she sees the toll continuing to smoke is taking on Grandma, who's accepted our offer of mutiple PV setups but won't try to quit with any seriousness until we find something that tastes (and, unfortunately, smells) exactly like smoking.

I was raised by a complete ANTZ Nazi of a mother, the kind of person who would walk halfway across a parking lot to shoot an evil glare and pretend to vomit if she saw someone smoking. That kind of behavior did nothing to turn me away from smoking, and might have actually encouraged me to start when I was 14 as the kind of "eff you" to adult society kids are so likely to embrace.

It's my hope that my kid will have a clearer view of the harm that comes from tobacco, having been raised in an environment where the subject hasn't been too taboo to even talk about, and won't even want to pick up a cig in the first place. But if, on her 18th birthday, she wants to head down to the vape shop for some 0mg juice and a mod (provided vape shops still exist and the scientific studies just getting underway now prove vaping to be as safe as we currently believe it to be), I'll be there to make sure she doesn't get ripped off.

 

[Pathogenius]

To the OP:

You clearly have a significant amount anger regarding kids and vaping, but you didn't actually say why.

Do you realize that?

I read your post a few times trying to figure out what exactly is the foundation of your objection, but it's simply not there.


The only thing that I can deduce is that you seem to be confusing smoking with vaping.

Do you react the same way when you see a morbidly obese child watching television, or eating fast food?

 

[Baditude]

My state just passed a law against minors using e-cigarettes. Vendors or parents knowingly allowing minors to use e-cigarettes is punishable by fines and jail time.

Having said that, last summer I granted my daughter's wish for an e-cig setup for her 18th birthday. My reasoning was she wanted one because she wanted to vape flavors without nicotine when around her smoking friends. Her BF and brother both smoked, as did most of the friends that she hung out with. I remembered that was the age I first started smoking. If I could in any way influence her to not smoke and not be tempted to start by vaping, then that seemed logical to me.

Since she's been vaping no-nic flavors, both her BF and brother have begun vaping to stop smoking, as well as a couple of her friends.