Contents:
- Medical Video: Smoking Causes Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema
- 1. You cannot smoke yourself
- 2. Always remind children of the negative side of smoking
- 3. Routine communicating with children
- 4. Get to know your child's friends
- 5. Teach children to reject smoking requests
- 6. Increase children's confidence
- 7. Encourage children's interests and talents
Medical Video: Smoking Causes Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema
When you were little, you might wonder what it was like to smoke. Children and adolescents do have great curiosity and don't hesitate to try. But from trial and error, it could be even addicted to smoking. Then how do you prevent children from smoking? Remember, the smoking ban is not necessarily effective. The more prohibited the child may become more curious. It's better to follow the following seven smart steps.
1. You cannot smoke yourself
Children learn to make decisions and behave through their parents. So stop smoking if you don't want children to smoke too. Research from the University of Washington shows that children whose parents smoke have a high probability of starting smoking at a young age of 13 years. It's useless to prohibit children from smoking or trial and error if you yourself are not free from smoking.
2. Always remind children of the negative side of smoking
Like sex education for children, education about the dangers of cigarettes must start early. Even though your child is still in a kindergarten or elementary school, you should keep reminding your child of the negative effects of smoking.
For example, your family is in a public place and there are people who smoke near you. Tell the child that smoking is damaging to health, disturbing others, and spending a lot of money. So that the impact can be imagined by children, give a simple example. Explain that the price of a pack of cigarettes is the same as the price of one of his favorite comics.
3. Routine communicating with children
Preventing children from smoking does not mean curbing their freedom. No need to forbid children to hang out with peers whose parents are smokers or watch movies that have smoking scenes. The key is to build communication and trust between you and the child.
All advice and value invested will continue to stick to the child, even though his classmates smoke or he often watches movies with smoking scenes. This will be very useful if the child is offered a cigarette when you are not with him. Curbing your child will make him look for opportunities behind you.
4. Get to know your child's friends
In addition to communicating, getting to know your children's friends can help you monitor your relationships. Invite your friends to play at home so you can chat with them too. From there you can assess whether there is a tendency for children to try cigarettes with their friends.
Seeing it from the outside does not guarantee that one hundred percent of children are free from cigarettes. However, at least you know what kind of playmate your child chooses so that you can help him make wise decisions.
5. Teach children to reject smoking requests
Although children do not show a tendency to smoke at an early age, provide the ability to reject invitations from friends. Under the pressure of peers, saying "No," or "Said my parents should not," alone is not enough. Teach children to look for strong reasons like, "I don't like the smell of cigarettes," or "My grandfather is sick because of smoking,".
6. Increase children's confidence
Children and teenagers may start smoking because they want to feel accepted by their friends. It can also be because smoking makes it feel like an adult. This means that children lack confidence. So, to prevent a child from smoking you must increase your child's self-confidence.
Children must know that smoking is not the only way to be accepted in association. He also must be confident that there are other people and friends who want to accept him for who he is. You can also entrust important responsibilities to children so that they feel more mature, for example sleeping in their own room.
7. Encourage children's interests and talents
Many children smoke because they feel they have something, such as satisfaction or a relaxed sensation from cigarettes. This means that a child's life is less productive and meaningful to him. It is better to encourage children to pursue their interests and talents so that they are far from the negative influence of smoking at an early age.
Encourage children to join extracurricular sports so that their environment and association focus on physical fitness, not on things that damage health. Studying other positive activities can also help children find a healthy release of stress other than smoking.
