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Quit Smoking
Articles
Advice For Parents
Parents, if your kids start
smoking, they may end up
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Having frequent coughs
and asthmatic attacks
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Developing serious
respiratory problems
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Performing poorly in
sports
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Using alcohol and drugs
like cocaine or marijuana
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Finding it harder to
quit later in life
Parents are the biggest
influence in their kids’ behavior. So what you tell your kids and how
you educate them really makes a real difference to whether or not they
will pick up smoking. These are some of the things you can
do.
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Quit smoking yourself!
If you're still in the process of quitting, then don’t smoke in
front of your kids.
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Never ever offer
cigarettes to your kids and don’t leave cigarettes lying around
the house
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Talk directly to your
children about the risks and dangers of smoking
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Let your kids know about
friends or relatives who died from smoking-related diseases
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Start talking about the
dangers of smoking from the time they reach age 5 or 6 and continue
through their teenage years. Most kids start smoking by age 11 and
many are addicted by age 14
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Find out if your kids’
friends smoke. Talk about how to refuse cigarette offers
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Tell your kids that
smoking portrayed on posters, magazines and TV are not
"cool" and are just unreal
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Go to only smoke-free
restaurants and shopping malls
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Organize fun events that
are smoke-free
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Teach your kids how to
enjoy and love fresh air
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Develop a complete
smoke-free culture at home
If you already know that
your kids started smoking, remember be gentle on your kids. After all,
smoking is not a crime. Kids make flaws as they grow up because they are
still learning good from bad. It is your duty to guide them. What you
can do is
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Don't pretend that its
not happening! Find the right moment where the 2 of you can be alone
to discuss the issue
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Ask him or her what made
him start smoking. Sometimes, kids turn to smoking when there is
another problem underneath. Get to the root cause of the problem and
talk about it
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Help him solve his
problems. It may be due to peer pressure from friends or school,
whatever it is, help him in any way you can
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Kids are influenced by
friends. You too must be a friend to him
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Keep all secrets to
yourself
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Be prepared to give him
support and help to get over smoking
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Continue your smoke-free
activities together
Spending just a little time
and effort makes a whole lot of difference to your kids. Its definitely
worth the effort!
**References National Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
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