Vaping and Kids...

[spainman]

First of all, I have no kids. But I do have friends with kids, and it puts me in weird space when they become fascinated with what I'm doing. It's like I can't talk about it without it further piquing their curiosity, and not to mention the pleasant smells they enjoy. Kids will even ask me to blow some out their way so they can smell it. They'll stare at me as if it's the coolest thing they've ever seen. And the parents never say much but I feel like I have to figure out a way to deflect their interest in my pv.

Also, in the grand scheme of things I wonder as vaping becomes more popular will kids think that it's safe enough to where they can start doing it with no consequences? I met another (my first run in with an eGo user) vaper yesterday who was saying that the local, overpriced kiosk in the mall was selling kits and 0 nic juices to minors (without parents presence and surprisingly sometimes with parents making the buys) as it's not illegal to seel 0 nic juices to the under 18 crowd apparently. Kinda bothersome to me...

 

[zapped]

I wouldnt bother explaining beyond saying "I use this because Im trying to get off cigarettes, its nothing you need to be interested in".

Showing them how it works and piquing their interest is inappropriate,especially if they're younger IMO.

Kids needed to be treated like kids instead of friends.

 

[Wondertwin]

I have 2 kids, but really being a parent isn't essential here so throwing it out there just because. You may want to ask your friends parents how they want it explained, but in my case I just go with honesty. My daughter is old enough to know smoking is bad, and remembers us smoking. So we tell her that this is like the lozenges and patches we tried, just a different aid to quit. Which led to a small lesson in why juice is still too dangerous for her to touch despite being better than cigarettes and all the reasons why. She gets it. Our son is still too little to care, but he understands never to touch our vaporizers or liquid bottles. They're locked up, but still. He knows not to touch should he ever come across them. I think generally kids are used to adults being able to do things that aren't child appropriate, like drinking, cigars, R rated movies, etc. In the case of my kids and some friends' children, they understood. I tried to ride the line between not demonizing it without glamorizing it. All a kid needs to know is that it's a tool to help break an addiction and that there's no shame in addressing it in a way that works.

As far as pushing it on kids, I think that's no good at all. I'll have to think about a good response to that though... My knee-jerk is NOOOO!!!!! then I remember that I smoked starting at around 16.

 

[Thompson]

I am worried about using mine around my niece. Pretty easy to avoid as she is all over the place busy in her own world for the most part. The one time I did slip and she saw me take a vape she immediately responded "EEEWWW!" but she is 3.

They definitely shouldn't be pawning them off to kids even with 0mg. Going to make the whole industry look bad. Got enough on our plate as it is without these honkies selling, what is in the most basic sense a drug delivery device, to kids.

 

[spainman]

I wouldnt bother explaining beyond saying "I use this because Im trying to get off cigarettes, its nothing you need to be interested in".

Showing them how it works and piquing their interest is inappropriate,especially if they're younger IMO.

Kids needed to be treated like kids instead of friends.

It's not like I'm holding vape seminars with the kids, they're usually just around and I don't necessarily hide my vaping from them, and at some point they come around... and they're not my kids so I can't just order them to go find something else to do, escpecially when they're parents aren't saying much. I guess they do assume that the vapor is harmless so letting the kids hang around me is harmless.

 

[Thompson]

It is a drug delivery device with nicotine, otherwise, it's just a fog machine...
And if kids can't get access to non nicotine e-cigs, they will try more dangerous yet legal things.
And really, most kids will get tired of using it after about 10 minutes...

True.

Once they turn into Teens then it'd be a bit more worrying.

I don't think a 7 year old is going to try and 'look cool' with an ecig, but them teenagers you never know haha. I did some stupid stuff when I was younger.

 

[Bullette the Cowdog]

I just tell kids "this keeps me from smoking cigarettes". After that statement, they don't seem interested anymore.

 

[SupplyDaddy]

If the children are your own, I suggest explaining as best you can with what you know they know. Mine knew I smoked and it was bad. They know that Mom and Dad now Vape, smell better, and don't go outside as often, but still they know it's a replacement for smoking.

For another persons children, I would simply say "This is what I do instead of smoking." and stop until they were out of the way (or go outside). Let their parents know that the children were curious and that I moved out of the area, and let the parents take it from there.

 

[Wondertwin]

Honestly if it makes you feel odd then the only thing you can control is whether you do it around them or not. If you want to say something but aren't sure how to I'd just ask their parents for guidance. I don't think it's strange to feel awkward about it if that's how you feel. Doubt the parents would be anything but helpful in coming up with a satisfactory way to approach the topic, possibly they've already said something?

 

[SupplyDaddy]

True.

Once they turn into Teens then it'd be a bit more worrying.

I don't see my 16 yo step-daughter doing it 'cause it looks cool" seeing her 50 yo step-dad doing it... LOL
But then again, my children, (step or otherwise) have their own drums to beat..

 

[spainman]

I tried to ride the line between not demonizing it without glamorizing it.

I guess that's what I'm saying also, trying to find that fine line. To Zapped's point on second thought, maybe I have acted more of buddy to my friend's kids in general, which is fine but I just need to remember to switch back to adult mode, plus I'm still relatively new to vaping so I'm still wrapping my head around and trying to define preicsely what it is I'M doing lol...

 

[spainman]

I met a guy in New Orleans once who was vaping and he was.... BUM BUM BUM: 15! So I talked with him for a while and apparently he started smoking when he was 10!, kind of hard to believe, but still interesting to know someone younger was actually using them for their intended use...
Of course, that was back when there was nothing more than cigalikes but he apparently quit.....
Damn, I forgot to put that in the "vapers in the wild" thread..
Oh well.

But I think, anyone that is a smoker that wants to break their habit should be allowed to use e-cigs without critization. (Hell if that's a word).

That's an interesting scenario... as a parent that discovered your teenager smoking... do you give them a pv as replacement or force em to quit?

 

[Firestorm]

I didn't smoke around my kids and I don't vape around my kids. It's not a conversation that I want to have.

 

[Bosco]

That's an interesting scenario... as a parent that discovered your teenager smoking... do you give them a pv as replacement or force em to quit?

My daughter is only 2 right now - so I just don't let her see me use my PV - which is pretty easy. But imagining what I'd do if I caught her smoking when she was 15 or 16 . . . .

At first I would force her to quit. She's not old enough to smoke OR vape and quiting is the best plan. I would stay on her to quit and punish and lecture her everytime I caught her smoking. If she somehow made it to 18 and all my lectures and punishments didn't work and she was still smoking . .then I'd talk to her about vaping, instead.

 

[SilentScreams]

I met a guy in New Orleans once who was vaping and he was.... BUM BUM BUM: 15! So I talked with him for a while and apparently he started smoking when he was 10!, kind of hard to believe, but still interesting to know someone younger was actually using them for their intended use....

Someone starting at 10 for me isn't all that hard to believe, at least not for me. I started smoking when I was 8. I was given my first cigarette when I was 4 by the babysitter.

Back on topic...

I have a 4 year old niece that is infatuated with the vapor. She wants to sit on my lap and try to catch the vapor. I've explained to her in the best way I can explain to a 4 year old that it's not good for her. She has since stopped bugging me to let her catch it. I also don't let her sit with me when I vape. When she's around I step off to the side puff once or twice and get back to whatever it is I was doing. The important thing is I try to keep it away from her as best I can. Although the entire family smokes and I have tried to convert a few including my neice's mother, to no avail.

 

[zapped]

I guess that's what I'm saying also, trying to find that fine line. To Zapped's point on second thought, maybe I have acted more of buddy to my friend's kids in general, which is fine but I just need to remember to switch back to adult mode, plus I'm still relatively new to vaping so I'm still wrapping my head around and trying to define preicsely what it is I'M doing lol...

Glad you took that in the way it was intended. Looking back it may have sounded a little preachy and thats not what I was going for.

I would do and say the exact same thing if a kid showed interest in what kind of beer I was drinking.

 

[SilentScreams]

My daughter is only 2 right now - so I just don't let her see me use my PV - which is pretty easy. But imagining what I'd do if I caught her smoking when she was 15 or 16 . . . .

At first I would force her to quit. She's not old enough to smoke OR vape and quiting is the best plan. I would stay on her to quit and punish and lecture her everytime I caught her smoking. If she somehow made it to 18 and all my lectures and punishments didn't work and she was still smoking . .then I'd talk to her about vaping, instead.

Punishments and lectures never worked on me. When my folks finally caught me smoking they made me smoke a carton and got ...... when I didn't get sick. They smoked so it was a hypocritical point they were trying to make. Don't be the hypocrite, talk to them explain to them how you wish you had never started. Try to get them to understand. Punishing and lecturing will most likely push them in the opposite direction you want them to go. At least that's how it worked on me.

 

[spainman]

Glad you took that in the way it was intended. Looking back it may have sounded a little preachy and thats not what I was going for.

I would do and say the exact same thing if a kid showed interest in what kind of beer I was drinking.

Yea I kinda took it like that at first lol, I'll admit but still a valid point. I guess I had never devised a kid specific reply and just used a simplified version of what I would tell adults, in other words trying to tell a kid it's safer than cigarettes as they're smelling a nice scent may resonate the wrong way.

 

[spainman]

My daughter is only 2 right now - so I just don't let her see me use my PV - which is pretty easy. But imagining what I'd do if I caught her smoking when she was 15 or 16 . . . .

At first I would force her to quit. She's not old enough to smoke OR vape and quiting is the best plan. I would stay on her to quit and punish and lecture her everytime I caught her smoking. If she somehow made it to 18 and all my lectures and punishments didn't work and she was still smoking . .then I'd talk to her about vaping, instead.

Not to knock your approach but personally I would feel sort of hypocritical in making my child (assuming they were hooked on em) quit in a manner that I couldn't do myself. Now on the other hand I wouldn't just rush out and buy them a e-cig kit either but still...

 

[Bosco]

Not to knock your approach but personally I would feel sort of hypocritical in making my child (assuming they were hooked on em) quit in a manner that I couldn't do myself. Now on the other hand I wouldn't just rush out and buy them a e-cig kit either but still...

Well yeah - it's a difficult situation to know how to handle. On one hand, I smoked and now vape - so that makes me hippocritical. On the other hand, I can't condone my daughter smoking - or vaping - if she's underage. I wouldn't condone it at any age - but once she's 18 there isn't anything I can do about it.

So I guess it's one of those situations where my own choices conflict with what I see as my job is - as a parent - which is to help my child make the best choices. Smoking is one of the stupidest choices I ever made - I just wouldn't be able to sit back and watch my daughter make the same mistake without being a total PITA about it.

I wouldn't jump right in with huge lectures. The first time I would definitely punish and have some kind of heart-to-heart style talk. The long boring lectures would come later - after we're both good and tired of talking about it, lol.

Oh - and no - long-winded lectures from my father never worked on me, either . .but nothing probably would have and . .well . .you gotta do *something*