I believe that the same education that we try to impart onto curious onlookers should also be shared at home.
When I was still a smoker, I had in-depth conversations with my kids about smoking and all of the dangers that accompanied it. The anti-smoking campaign begins very early in their schools (they start warning them in kindergarten!) and so I wanted to carry on those conversations at home. When they would come home from school and I was out on the back deck having a cigarette, I would have four little faces plastered to inside of the sliding glass door and telling me that I was killing myself. I agreed! The discussions that took place following were opportunities for them to understand a little bit about how strong addiction can be and how addiction can influence, otherwise sane individuals, to make bad (health) choices. I would like to think that for them, seeing and experiencing my own struggle with addiction (to nicotine) is a strong deterrent to them to ever even try cigarettes. We also discussed other products with addictive properties (caffeine, opiates/drugs/painkillers, etc.)
When I decided to give vaping a try, I was excited about it and discussed it with my kids. I explained how it was different from cigarettes (burning tobacco), what the ingredients were and how those ingredients might affect my health. We even looked up the ingredients together on the internet to find out more about them. My kids agree that vaping is much less harmful to me (and to them) than smoking cigarettes. When we see something on the news with regard to vaping, I'm surprised (and proud) to see how well they are able to dissect fact from speculation all on their own. Not only are they forward thinkers, but also independent thinkers (at least as far as the media is concerned
).
