Ecigs and kids

[samuraijill]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this recently and wanted to get the community's input on the subject. I am the parent of an only son, he's almost 12 years old. Obviously, he really wanted his parents to quit smoking and he's thrilled that we have, but he's really interested in my ecig stuff. He comments that he likes a certain aroma of vapor, he asks questions about the equipment, he's generally curious.
I am happy to talk to him about it because I know he's excited for us, but I also wonder if I should be trying to hide it from him more, the way I did with cigarettes? I keep everything put locked away for his safety, and he is old enough to know not to touch eliquid and understand that as far as he is concerned it is poison, but I still feel a little weird discussing it with him. Is this a holdover from the shame I felt over my smoking? I don't want him to think that vaping is cool, I don't want him to smoke or imitate smoking in any way.
How do you guys handle the vaping issue where your older kids are concerned?

 

[Elphaba13]

I don't vape in front of my kids. I didn't smoke in front of my kids. I'd hate them to take up either.

 

[ShannonA]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this recently and wanted to get the community's input on the subject. I am the parent of an only son, he's almost 12 years old. Obviously, he really wanted his parents to quit smoking and he's thrilled that we have, but he's really interested in my ecig stuff. He comments that he likes a certain aroma of vapor, he asks questions about the equipment, he's generally curious.
I am happy to talk to him about it because I know he's excited for us, but I also wonder if I should be trying to hide it from him more, the way I did with cigarettes? I keep everything put locked away for his safety, and he is old enough to know not to touch eliquid and understand that as far as he is concerned it is poison, but I still feel a little weird discussing it with him. Is this a holdover from the shame I felt over my smoking? I don't want him to think that vaping is cool, I don't want him to smoke or imitate smoking in any way.
How do you guys handle the vaping issue where your older kids are concerned?

I don't think we teach our kids anything by doing something we don't want them doing and hiding it. I deally if we don't want them to do it when they are older we shouldn't do it... barring that talk to them aboout it why you are doing it why you would prefer they never do and so on.

I highly doubt that any parent on the planet can say they've never been a bad influence to their children in ANY way. Perhaps not the more obvious but nobody's perfect and I think one of the best things we can teach our children is how to both acknowledge and apologize for our shortcomings. Too few people know how to do that already.

I take that back if they catch us at it then we have taught them sneaking and hiding things is ok.

 

[bmwjen]

My son is 11. He has asked me since he was 7 to "stop smoking". I finally did & started vaping. He was with me when I purchased my first 401 kit. In fact, his grandma(my mom) & I both bought new kits at the same time. He wasn't that interested back then. However now that he sees his dad making cool mods, & the mods that I buy..........he seems a bit more interested. Every now and then he'll want to smell a certain juice that he sees me open fresh outta the mail box.

I've explained it to him........& this is what I've said. "Cigarettes are REALLY bad for you, that is one of the reasons your grandpa died. You see there is an active ingredient in them that is REALLY addicting.......it's called nicotine, but along with that nicotine there are like 4k other chemicals in cigarettes that are really scarey. Now the juice that I make & buy only has the nicotine in it with some flavoring, & not the other yucky chemicals............so i'm still inhaling the addicting stuff/nicotine, just not polluting the air you breathe with it, or hurting my lungs."

I can honestly say that my 11 year old is extremely mature & worldly. (We unschooled until the 2nd grade) My son watched me vape my first e-cig on the vegas strip when he was 9.

He's never picked up a mod to "look at".......& all of my juice is in a locked tackle box. My diy nic is in a locked refrigerator/freezer in the garage.

My son has been warned time & time again (even when I was a smoker)...........DON'T you EVER even think of smoking! It's the worst possible thing you could probably do. It's yucky, it'll get you in it's grips & then you are hooked. I don't think I have to worry about my son smoking though. He's got the CDC jackie chan & tony hawk "don't smoke" posters on the wall in his room right beside his HALO & Assassin's Creed stuff. He's a pretty good kid. Not to mention he is REALLY happy that his mom quit smoking.

 

[Doberz]

I actually made a very similar thread about this a while back.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ssion/135791-do-you-vap-around-your-kids.html

 

[samuraijill]

My son is 11. He has asked me since he was 7 to "stop smoking". I finally did & started vaping. He was with me when I purchased my first 401 kit. In fact, his grandma(my mom) & I both bought new kits at the same time. He wasn't that interested back then. However now that he sees his dad making cool mods, & the mods that I buy..........he seems a bit more interested. Every now and then he'll want to smell a certain juice that he sees me open fresh outta the mail box.

I've explained it to him........& this is what I've said. "Cigarettes are REALLY bad for you, that is one of the reasons your grandpa died. You see there is an active ingredient in them that is REALLY addicting.......it's called nicotine, but along with that nicotine there are like 4k other chemicals in cigarettes that are really scarey. Now the juice that I make & buy only has the nicotine in it with some flavoring, & not the other yucky chemicals............so i'm still inhaling the addicting stuff/nicotine, just not polluting the air you breathe with it, or hurting my lungs."

I can honestly say that my 11 year old is extremely mature & worldly. (We unschooled until the 2nd grade) My son watched me vape my first e-cig on the vegas strip when he was 9.

He's never picked up a mod to "look at".......& all of my juice is in a locked tackle box. My diy nic is in a locked refrigerator/freezer in the garage.

My son has been warned time & time again (even when I was a smoker)...........DON'T you EVER even think of smoking! It's the worst possible thing you could probably do. It's yucky, it'll get you in it's grips & then you are hooked. I don't think I have to worry about my son smoking though. He's got the CDC jackie chan & tony hawk "don't smoke" posters on the wall in his room right beside his HALO & Assassin's Creed stuff. He's a pretty good kid. Not to mention he is REALLY happy that his mom quit smoking.

This post describes our experience almost to a T - the open approach seems so far to make the most sense for us, we're just as honest about vaping as we always have been about our desire for him never to smoke. His whole generation seems far more cigarette wise than I ever was at his age.

 

[Sandrita]

I can't really comment but if I was in your position I would probably only use when your son is not around and keep your bits from view Maybe use occasionally in front of him like you would when you smoked such as in a restaurant or in the car! Good Luck

 

[mistinthewoods]

Jill, your son is 12 years old. You are not capable of hiding anything from him anyhow. I remember being 12 and knowing far more than my parents suspected that I did and that was way before the internet (like 1970).
I have always been as honest and open as possible with my kids and they both turned out to be well balanced adults that I would like even if they weren't my kids.
Worry less and love more. That's my advice.

 

[prometheus]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this recently and wanted to get the community's input on the subject. I am the parent of an only son, he's almost 12 years old. Obviously, he really wanted his parents to quit smoking and he's thrilled that we have, but he's really interested in my ecig stuff. He comments that he likes a certain aroma of vapor, he asks questions about the equipment, he's generally curious.
I am happy to talk to him about it because I know he's excited for us, but I also wonder if I should be trying to hide it from him more, the way I did with cigarettes? I keep everything put locked away for his safety, and he is old enough to know not to touch eliquid and understand that as far as he is concerned it is poison, but I still feel a little weird discussing it with him. Is this a holdover from the shame I felt over my smoking? I don't want him to think that vaping is cool, I don't want him to smoke or imitate smoking in any way.
How do you guys handle the vaping issue where your older kids are concerned?

Hm... well my suggestion would be to not protect them from anything. Tell them the whole truth of what you do, why you do it, and why they shouldn't. As for vaping around them... well if you don't want them influenced by your actions then don't do it. Best way to convince your kids how to behave or not behave it by example so yes vaping could set a bad example or at least one that you would rather they not pick up. Also you can let the child know that nicotine is a poison, not just as far as he is concerned, but also to smokers/vapers. We try to kid ourselves but in the end thats the truth. We like ingesting small quantities of poison because in small amounts it doesn't do enough damage to kill us, just make us feel good.

In the end though I think being open and honest is all you can do because lets face it, kids are not stupid. Remember when your parents tried to hide things from you and you always knew? well thats what you would be doing. Kind of dumb if you ask me lol.

 

[keyzygirl]

My kids are 11 and 14.I feel honesty works best.They hated me smoking and they dont mind the vaping as much.If they ask questions I answer them honestly and they seem to understand it.Im not embarrassed about vaping and I dont hide things from my kids.If your doing something you have to hide then your doing something wrong.I expect honesty from them so its up to me to teach by example.

 

[LadyLynx]

This is such a difficult subject. I have a 4yo daughter and I struggle between letting her see me or hiding it. I have tried to explain it to her, as well as possible, and of course keep everything out of reach. No one is perfect, and all parents have vices, but hiding everything seems like a bad idea. My father was and is a closet drinker. We hardly ever saw him drink in the open. He would hide bottles under his bed, in the garage, etc and would just suddenly and unexplainably be drunk and sad/crying/angry etc. and everyone in the family would just pretend like nothing was going on. I always say that I just wish he had drank in the open, it would have made more sense to me as a kid.

That said I don't think that vaping is as bad or hurtful as problem drinking (hardly!) but not something I want my daughter to be addicted to. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't seem like the right thing to do. There are lots of very bad things in the world, and you can't keep your kids locked in the basement until they are 21. I think the best approach is that of honesty, thoughtful conversation.

 

[fray]

I know my kids are going to do stuff I tell them not to do. I did when I was a kid and that's what got me smoking.

I would much rather (when they are of age) vape 0mg juice then try cigarettes.

That being said I don't vape around them. Not to hide it, but preventing any (however unlikely) effects they could possibly get from "second hand vaping"

 

[want to quit]

I would just try to explain your son in whatever way that what you are doing (vaping) still causes cancer and could let to you getting sick at one point. this will probably cause other issues such as your son asking to quit vaping now. This is a annoying subject because which ever way you go you are the loser. If you keep going the way you do he may starts vaping at one point because he assumes it is 100% safe, if you tell him its still bad he wants you to quit and so forth.

I personally just think sooner or later when you are out of the house every kid will snack whatever they want to try in your case your e-cig.

Again I am 26 I don't have kids I just gave you my opinion to this.