Reality Check: One in five high school students smoke. More than 3 million U.S. teens are cigarette smokers. The biggest increase in cigarette users are teen girls. More than 2,000 children under the age of 18 start smoking each day. One out of every three cancer deaths is caused by tobacco…and tobacco-related cancer deaths are preventable.
This article on the Reality Check website called “Raising Tobacco-Free Kids” caught my attention. My children are nearing the age when this will become an issue for them. There are useful suggestions in this article regarding how to talk to your children about this and the related peer pressure, how to equip them, preventative steps to take, and other advice.
You will find the article here: Raising A Tobacco-Free Teen – “10 proven tips to stop kids from lighting up & save lives”
The article is from Michele Borba, who is the author of books like No More Misbehavin’ and Don’t Give Me That Attitude!, parenting expert, educational psychologist, Today show contributor and mom.
I found this article on the @DailyParentTip twitter account.
This article does point out the point I make above. It is a good article. I was surprised by the findings.
This is a good point. The larger issue for kids is having the right friends so that they will not make the bad choices with regards to smoking or drugs, etc. Good friends support them for good choices so this is critical to the smoking issue and many other peer pressure issues.
This article is very imformative in terms of dealing with smoking in teens. But as a teenager who doesn’t smoke, I have to say that I find the very idea of smoking repulsive. Unless you are hanging out with people who smoke, you are not going to be asked to smoke (in my experience). Maybe it’s just me, but I believe that is the case. Without saying that people who smoke are bad (because they are not), you may want to discuss with your child the importance of hanging out with people who may pressure them into doing things such as smoking.