While your teen still lives at home, and under your care, try to influence the habits they’ll carry into later years. Don’t abandon your role as their parent and assume they will not listen.
Consider what messages will resonate with your teen: Warnings about heart attacks, stroke, diabetes and cancer are unlikely to make much of an impact - even though they are real concerns. Remember how immortal you felt as a young person and take a different tack.
Perhaps an appeal to vanity will work better:
o Smoking gives you bad breath
o Smoking makes your clothes and hair smell
o Smoking turns your teeth and fingernails yellow
o Smoking makes your skin look grey and unhealthy
o Smoking can produce a hacking cough with lots of phlegm. Really attractive!
o Smoking zaps your energy for sports and other activities.
o Impotence twice as likely to occur in male smokers
Discuss with your teenager how cigarette companies make money selling their product to young people. Many teenagers ignore adults who nag them not to smoke. But they might think twice about listening to those other adults - the advertisers and manufacturers - who are trying to get them to start smoking and keep smoking for the rest of their lives!
Help your teen make a quit plan: Give your teen the opportunity to make the first move to talk about quitting. If they tell you they’d like to quit, ask how you can help. Ask if any of their friends have tried to quit, and how they did it. Explore what strategies your teen thinks would work best, then add your ideas to the discussion.
Try some of these ideas:
o Set a quit date. Help choose a date to stop smoking. Avoid stressful times like exams or the beginning of the school year.
o Write it down. Encourage your teen to make a written list of the reasons for quitting.
o Practice saying no. Suggest your son or daughter find a simple sentence to repeat whenever they are pressured to smoke with friends. Which friends are the heavy smokers? What should they do when they hang out with those people?
o Consider stop-smoking medications. Review with your teen whether it would help to use nicotine patches and other medications. Maybe a talk with the family doctor would help.
o Find a support group. If your teen is open to the idea, find a list of support groups for kids who are trying to stop smoking. Then leave it to him to make the calls.
o Prepare for a bumpy road. Warn your son or daughter that there will be cravings and other signs of withdrawal. Encourage them to stick with their decision. Make it clear that even in the event of a relapse, they have your support and can always try again.
post by, Lai
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