PART NINE Please Talk to Your Kids About Smoking

You may think that your kids are smart enough not to try it. You may think that because you yourself do not smoke, that your kids won't have access to it. You may think that there's enough information on smoking that it will deter your child from smoking.

You are wrong.

I grew up with smoking parents. I watched them try to quit, try to quit, and try to quit some more. I had seen the pictures of blackened lungs in my health class text book. I even sat by my mom's hospital bed for two weeks as she lay there dying from pneumonia. She didn't die, but she was not healing because of what smoking had done to her. She left the hospital with a scarred lung.

I was smart. I got good grades and I had good common sense. I could figure out problems and rationalize. And yet, I made the decision to smoke. I had to work at it at first. I taught my lungs to get used to the smoke & poison I inhaled. I hid it all very well.

A year later, my parents confronted me and I was already hooked.

You need to talk to your kids about smoking as early as they can understand what you are saying to them. Do whatever it takes. Show them YouTube videos of victims of throat cancer, lung cancer, stroke. Have them meet with someone like me. Have a smoker explain to them that yes, I'd have a toe cut off if it meant waking up tomorrow as though I never smoked.

Even if you and your kid are distant--bridge the gap. Have a trusted aunt, uncle, cousin speak with them instead.

It's hard to imagine you'd ever get lung cancer from smoking at the age of fifteen. That's so far away when you are fifteen years old. And when experimenting with those first few cigarettes, it's hard to imagine why anyone gets hooked--why it seems enjoyable.

The truth is that's not enjoyable. The only enjoyment a smoker gets from smoking is relieving the withdrawal pangs. And every cigarette leads to the next.

Relate it to heroin. A teen might wonder secretly what all the fuss is about. Ask your teen if he or she would wonder the same about heroin. Would you wonder what it tastes like? What it feels like going into your vein? Would you try heroin just to see what the fuss is about?

Most would balk at this. The thought of volunteering to stick a sharp needle into a vein is gruesome. But only hundreds die yearly from heroin. Hundreds of thousands die yearly in the United States alone from smoking related causes.

It does not make you appear older or cool. It did at one time--be honest with your teen--but now it is the strong burly man who resits the temptation to "try it" and it is the pretty gal who is sexy because her teeth are white and she smells nice.

Ask your teen to think about it with a rational mind first. Look at smokers in real life, in public (not on TV or movies). Do the smokers appear as though they are having a better time than anyone else? Does their cough make them appear sexy or brave? Get up close and notice the smell. Ask for the time and notice their breath.

Do whatever it takes. If you do find out that your kid is smoking, find out where he or she is getting the cigarettes, beat them, lock them in their room. WHATEVER IT TAKES!

Every kid is different. You will know best how to speak with your children. If you do not know how to speak to them, drop them off at a cancer center or get a trusted relative/friend to beat the sense into them. There are piles of books out there instructing you on how to keep your kid from smoking. Why aren't you reading them?

The biggest problem with smoking is that even today it isn't always thought of a deadly drug. Your kid knows one cigarette won't kill him. And he can't possibly imagine 30,000 cigarettes down the road. Remember that one cigarette may not kill you--but one taste of heroin probably wouldn't kill you either.

We smokers are junkies. Addicted to a drug that is the most addictive, the fastest acting, and the hardest to get off of. Do you want your kid to be a future junkie?

Just because we smokers are not vagrants squatting in dilapidated houses does not make us any less a junkie. Just because we maintain jobs and mortgages doesn't mean that our minds are not fixed on smoking. Just because we are not sick today does not mean smoking will not eventually kill us.

Keep your kid from becoming a future junkie.

My parents assumed that I knew better. Think about that.