Most smokers started smoking when they were teenagers.
This can be attributed of course to several factors like advertising, peer pressure and curiosity.
And if you have a growing teen, you may want to keep him or her away from smoking.
Below are 10 ways how you can keep your teenagers away from tobacco use.
1.
Try to know and understand the factors why teens smoke.
For some teens, smoking is a form of rebellion, or a way to fit in a social group.
Others want to feel and look cool or a way to feel they are in control of themselves.
You may want to know these factors and try to ask your teenagers about their view about smoking, and if they know anyone in their friends who smoke.
Commend them if they make good choices, and try to talk them out of smoking by explaining to them about its consequences.
2.
Tell them you're against smoking.
You may get the impression that your teens are not listening to anything that you say, but you need to say it.
Tell them you're against smoking.
You might just get a result more than you expected.
Teenagers whose parents laid down a no smoking policy are more unlikely to smoke.
3.
Walk the talk.
If you want to keep your teens away from smoking, you may want to be the best example.
You can't expect your teens to stay away from smoking if you, yourself is smoking.
The best way to tell your kids is to walk the talk.
If you're a non-smoker better keep it that way and if you smoke, it is best that you quit the soonest.
4.
Use your teen's vanity in your favor.
This is clear, smoking is ain't cool nor it is glamorous.
You may want to tell them how stinky and dirty smoking is.
You may also want to tell them about the negative effects of smoking to a smoker's physical appearance like bad breath, dull skin, yellow teeth, wrinkles, and gray hairs.
5.
Tell them how expensive it is to smoke.
You know very well that smoking is very expensive.
You may want to let your teenagers to personally compute the expenses they'll have if they smoke.
You may want to compare the expenses of smoking with other expenses like buying an electronic gadget, new clothes, or other items they might be interested.
6.
Don't underestimate peer pressure.
Peers can be very convincing.
You may want to anticipate this by preparing your teens when confronted by their peers.
Rehearsing them might even help them to say "NO" to peer pressure.
7.
Don't take nicotine addiction lightly.
Nicotine is highly addictive.
Even little amounts of nicotine may be enough to get them into the habit.
Tell your kids how they can get addicted to smoking and how difficult it is to quit.
8.
Give them actual examples.
They may think that the bad effects of smoking are only true to some people, or that they can handle the effects of smoking because they are still young.
You may want to use famous celebrities, or relatives, or someone they might know who have suffered from the negative effects of smoking like cancer, stroke, or heart attack to stress your point.
9.
Cigarettes are not the only source of nicotine addiction.
You may also want to orient your kids about the different tobacco products that can also harm their health and that can get them addicted.
Smokeless tobacco, hookas, bidis, and kreteks are only some of the tobacco products that are as harmful as cigarettes.
10.
Join the active campaign against teen smoking.
You may want to participate and join local drives against teen smoking.
You may want to encourage your teenagers to join you in one of the local activities.
This will greatly help them gain awareness on the negative effects of smoking to a person's health.