Vaping and Kids...

[Teacup36]

3 of my 5 children smoke and as much as I got on them about... Well hey mom was smoking too soo they didn't smoke around me and I smoked outside. I quit for 6 months in 2008 jan-june and got my youngest to stop ( he was 14 then and barely started my others where 18+. My 18yo was in a serious car accident that left him in a 6 week coma with a severe brain injury in june if 08 and the minute I got the call i went to the closest gas station filled up bought smokes and jumped right back into a then 33year habit. My youngest ( 14 then) started up again to but he also started drinking, major life cgange mom at the hospital 24-7 his brother he idolized on the verge of what dr said would surely be death. I had to pick my battles i wanted to booze out of his life. He gave it up but said the smokes helped calm him ( i understood that very clear) we did counseling and all that finally in 2012 i found ecigs and stopped the day I vaped my son now 18 asked what that was so i gave him 1 of my small batteries and a bottle if juice and a couple cartos he took to it like a fish to water. Does that make me a bad mom? I don't think so I showed them all a bad road all the years I smoked i feel like it is my responsibility to show them an alternative. My son who has the brain injury no longer smokes sunce he fully awoke 6 months later ( but has no recall of having smoked in his life) my other 2 one had tried ecigs but says its not for her and my older son says don't even bother me about it... I also have grandkids who at 3-4 were telling me i need to stop smoking where happy when granma switch to vaping the took an interest for the first couple of weekends wantung to " smell the vapor" but i just tild them even though this smells better than cigs it still has nicotine in it which it like having to much soda ( something they aren't allowed so the got that) and the haven't bothered me about it sense. I think we have to relate to kids at each level, be honest and then use pv devices like we did cigs when the were around( i never would let my gks even stand near me outside if i was smoking.) same with pv. Yes the should understand it is healthier but still not good. For teens if you smoked and then the started i think the do as i say not as i do doesn't work here. If they arent quitting cigs then help them. Fortunately my son was 18 by the time we fiund ecigs but had he been a year younger i still would rather he went the ecig route. And yes i would have guven him my stuff to use. Better to give him a fighting chance of getting off cigs. He started at 24 mg nic in june and is now down to 6 mg ( 12 on a super stressful day) i started at 12 mg and am at 6,3,0 ) our goal is to stop vaping too.this has been the best way for our particular very stressful life we live now. That's JMHO for how i handled small kids and a teen.


Tapatype...cause no one's talking.

 

[zapped]

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...

Thats the great thing about being a parent.You arent being a hypocrite, youre looking out for their best interests. I actually feel sorry for my son, he isnt going to try anything I didnt do at a much earlier age.

My father took a very liberal view of raising a hard headed son...he let me do anything I wanted to.... Im trying help my son avoid some of that unpleasantness.Experience might be the best teacher but shes much harsher than being grounded and getting a belt.

 

[spainman]

Thats the great thing about being a parent.You arent being a hypocrite, youre looking out for their best interests. I actually feel sorry for my son, he isnt going to try anything I didnt do at a much earlier age.

My father took a very liberal view of raising a hard headed son...he let me do anything I wanted to.... Im trying help my son avoid some of that unpleasantness.Experience might be the best teacher but shes much harsher than being grounded and getting a belt.

Yeah, and I guess I'll understand more should I become a parent (I'm not getting any younger lol)... I got alot of theories on what I would do differently from my Mom and all but... and I'm sure those "contradictory" moments are inevitable raising kids. Reminds me of a Volkswagen commercial where the dad drops food on the floor and is about to pick it up and eat it until he realizes his infant son is watching, and he's forced to reluctantly throw it away...

 

[xsphat]

I have a 5 year old and I thought a lot about how to "handle" my vaping. Thing is, if you hide a thing from a child and they bust you, it makes it a lot cooler to them. So I took a bottle of juice with cap on tight and handed it to him. I told him to take a good look at it. Then I let him sniff it from a safe distance and said, "smells good, right? Well, this is poison and will kill you if you don't know how to use it." Now, if he sees a cartomizer on the floor he won't touch it. He tells me to pick it up "right now" because its not safe.

Think about it, the lesson he's learned from my vaping is not all pretty things are good for you, and that smoking is bad, and I told him what vaping is and why I do it. Now, he pays no attention to my vaping at all. When I was 10, my dad had a cupboard full of pills for various conditions he had, and that is exactly what he did, he told me some will get you high and others will burst internal organs without the right other pill. Thing is, I never took any, even the when I knew which ones could have sold for $20 a pop at school.

The moral of the story here is treat children like little adults, don't shelter them. Just keep in mind what state of brain development they're in and react accordingly.

 

[Orobas]

I don't have kids, don't want kids, don't particularly like kids.

I'm sure my sister-in-law's children know what an e-cigarette is, since they use them occasionally but not with the success I've enjoyed. But they allow their 15 year old son to smoke in front of them, so, my behavior isn't an issue.

As for my brother-in-law's stepdaughters, presumably he's explained it's to stop him from smoking. They've never breached the subject with me.

Otherwise I don't associate with children. I don't have friends with young children. And I generally ignore any stranger's children; just seems like a better idea than saying anything that might be construed as offensive.

 

[xsphat]

I used to be the same way until I saw that little blue plus sign on the pee stick. At that point, I decided to just dig in and deal with it. Now I miss him the second he leaves and I couldn't imagine how ....ty (poopy? I thought this was an 18 and older forum) life would without him in it.

 

[mrdee3]

Wow this would be hard to deal with. I started smoking when i was 13. I just lit up in front of my parents they were not happy to say the least. They both smoked and told me to stop or else and i told them that i would do it in front of them or behind there backs ether way i was smoking. The irony in this is now i got them both off smokes and on to vaping with me. I now have a 2year old that i hope never smokes or vapes. It is a double edge sword teens love to do what they are told not to do and if they want to do it bad enough they will find a way. I just hope if my son wants to smoke that bad he vapes instead.

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[mayamason]

The moral of the story here is treat children like little adults, don't shelter them. Just keep in mind what state of brain development they're in and react accordingly.

^This. I am a single mom of 5 and 8 year old girls. Believe me, they knew about my smoking. If they couldn't find mom, they knew to look outside. They knew what it smelled like. They had a child's idea of what it was doing to me.

So now? They know about my vaping. The youngest just knows it is a "pretend cigarette", and it is strictly, completely off-limits for kids - even though it's never within her reach anyhow. The oldest (8 going on 19) and I have had several long talks about smoking already - even before I had quit - how bad it is for your body, how addictive it is once you start, how I only started because I somehow thought it was "cool" (and how dumb of an idea that was). And now we talk about how vaping isn't cool either, because it still has some of the not-good-for-you stuff that cigarettes have. But for people who are trying to quit smoking, it's the most successful thing they can use. (She still remembers Mom going bat-poop crazy while taking Wellbutrin the last time I tried to quit. )