A teenager may begin smoking due to innocence, but it may lead to bigger issues in the future. It may also lead to long-term problems that are quite difficult to handle. In fact, the adults who choose to smoke have often begun smoking in their teenage years. What can be your cue to stop them from smoking? Help your child to avoid smoking or even taking his or her first puff of delight. The following steps will come handy for preventing your teenager from beginning smoking.
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Become a Positive Example by Taking Good Care of Your Health
Become a good example by taking proper care of your health. Parents are the first teachers to children and by practicing healthy eating habits you can keep your teenagers from bad activities such as smoking.
Teen smoking is commonly noticed in those people whose parents tend to smoke. If you are not a smoker, keep up the good work. However, if you do smoke, it is time for you to quit doing so. The sooner you give up smoking, the lesser are the chances of your kid turning out to be a smoker. Ask your doctor about the ways by which you can control or put a stop to your smoking habits.
While this is being done, make sure to not smoke in the car or the house where your teenager normally spends his or her time. Do not leave cigarette stubs in places where your teenager can find them easily. Explain about the ill effects that can be caused due to smoking and how unhappy you are because of your habits.
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Sympathize The Attraction of Smoking
Teen smoking can also be a type of rebellion or a way to suit the surroundings in which a child belongs. Some teens also smoke to bring their weight down or to control it. Some people also smoke to feel independent or cool.
Ask your teen about his or her feelings on smoking and try to know about their friends who tend to smoke. Praise all the good choices that you teen make and talk to them about the consequences that can result from their bad choices. This might help the teenagers from beginning smoking. You might also speak about the consequences of smoking and it not being as glamorous as the tobacco companies show it to be. It is necessary to create a perception about smoking amidst your teen and make him or her understand about the consequences.
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Say No To Teenage Smoking
You may feel that your teen does not hear about the things you are trying to speak to them, but choose to speak about it anyway. Tell your teen that he or she is not allowed to smoke. Your disapproval of smoking will have more impact on them than you think. Teens whose parents set certain limits on them regarding smoking are prone to smoke less as compared to the ones who do not pose any restrictions at all. The same rule is applicable for those kids who are very close to their parents or peers.
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Appeal To Your Teenagers Pride
Smoking is not fascinating or glamorous. Keep on constantly reminding your teen that smoking can be smelly or dirty. Smoking can also give you wrinkles and bad breath. Your hair and clothes smell as well as your teeth start to look yellow when you tend to smoke in excessive limits. You can also be prone to get chronic cough and feel less energetic while playing sports or doing other activities.
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Explain the Cost of Smoking
By explaining the details about cost of buying a smoke you might prevent your children from beginning smoking. Assist your teen in understanding the amount of money that is spent on smoking a pack of cigarettes per day, week, month or year. You may also educate him or her by comparing the cost of buying a smoke with all the basic necessities that he or she is getting from their parents.
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Anticipate Pressure from Friends
By expecting situations beforehand you will be able to prepare your children from beginning smoking. Your teenager can be convinced to smoke by being in a company of friends who tend to smoke. At such times, you can equip your teen with certain tools that will compel him or her to refuse. It might turn out to be as easy as saying, “Thank you, but I do not prefer smoking”. The more your kids learn to refuse, the more likely they will say no to smoke at the moment of truth.
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Take Smoking Addiction Critically
Many teenagers believe that an occasional puff of smoke will not cause addiction and even if they do get addicted, they can quit smoking at any time of the day. Teenagers can be subjected to lower levels of smoking. Make your kid understand that most kids begin smoking as teenagers and once you are hooked, it becomes extremely difficult to quit.
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Demonstrate the Eventual Outcome of Smoking
Teens are of an assumption that bad things happen to bad people only. Most teens often believe that heart attacks, strokes and cancer are theoretical. At such times, you can showcase your neighbors, friends, relatives and celebrities who have suffered badly due to excessive smoking. If the teenagers observe these kinds of real life examples, they might turn away from beginning smoking.
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The Other Types of Smoking
Candy-flavored cigarettes (beedis), smokeless tobacco and clove cigarettes (kreteks) are often considered to be less harmful as compared to traditional cigarettes. Teens also have a mind frame that hookah or water pipe smoking is safer than normal cigarette smoking. Hookahs, kreteks and beedis all of them cause health issues and never let your teen be fooled by all these means of smoking. You might be able to prevent teenage smoking among your children by explaining different types of smoking and the illnesses which are caused because of them.
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Participate in Anti-Smoking Communities
You can prevent your children from beginning smoking if you make them understand the consequences of smoking. Take action against teen smoking. Take part in smoking prevention campaigns that are held locally as well as organized by school in numerous ways. You can also support the efforts to make public places free of smoking and tax elevation on products that involve tobacco. Your actions can tend to prevent your kids from smoking cigarettes or becoming a smoker.
If your teenager has already begun smoking, avoid posing ultimatums and threats. On the contrary, try to find the reason behind your kids’ smoking and design ways for him or her to quit smoking. Stopping or avoiding teen smoking is the best thing that you can do to grant your teenager a healthy lifestyle.
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