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No Butts About It
Talking to Your Kids About Smoking
By Teri Brown
Most parents, whether they smoke or not, do not want their children smoking. But how are we to accomplish that task in a world where so many young people seem to ignore the anti-smoking message?
To begin with, parents should remember that the best anti-tobacco message comes right out of your home. "Young children learn best through observation," says Michael D. Smith, assistant professor of psychology for Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa. "No discussion of the dangers of smoking will be particularly influential if they see parents smoking themselves. Teaching by example is the most powerful tool that we have to educate our children in good health behaviors."
So what about those parents who haven't been able to quit yet? Smith says that the message doesn't stop with observation. You can open up conversations with your children in other ways.
Heather Winne, mother of three from Bloomington, Ind., is a smoker who desperately hopes her children never pick up her habit. Unable to quit at this time, Winne has made discussing tobacco a priority. "My daughters started first grade and quickly learned from their teachers that smoking was a bad habit and harmful to your health," she says. "They've talked to me about it a lot, and I've spent some time explaining what addictions are as well as how they start. I've tried explaining that sometimes people, usually when they are teenagers, get curious about smoking and try it. They don't plan on smoking forever or getting addicted to it; they are just curious or trying to impress someone."
Winne also has explained to her children that if they don't want to be smokers they will have to fight the curiosity and not ever try it.
