A stinky situation: Living with parents who smoke

ALEX BOYLES/Poca

By Justin Wymer
St. Albans High School

Studies in recent years have shown that teenage smoking is decreasing, but approximately 3,000 teens still begin smoking each day. And teens whose parents smoke are twice as likely to become smokers themselves.

Even if teens do not smoke, though, they are still affected if they live with parents who do.

“I get a funny taste in my mouth when [my parents] smoke around me,” said St. Albans junior Chris Smith. “It’s like a chemical factory slowly pumping arsenic down my throat.”

“I don’t hate the people who do it,” he continued. “But I’ll never smoke because I know the dangers it can cause.”

Matt Thompson, another St. Albans junior, complained of the lingering smell of smoke that comes from living with smokers.

“It smells like car exhaust, body odor, millions of people dying and burnt tree leaves,” he said. “I don’t want to smell like that, and they shouldn’t either.”

Parents’ smoking can also take an emotional toll.

“I was so upset that I was crying,” St. Albans junior Donielle Scott said, recalling when she first discovered her mother’s habit.

“I remember going to my grandma’s,” she continued. “She basically told me that Mom is an adult, and she’ll do what she wants to do. All I can do is love her.”

“I don’t like it because it hurts them, me and my little brother,” said St. Albans sophomore Bree Potter regarding her parents’ smoking. “I don’t want them to die [or] for my brother to grow up thinking smoking is OK.”

The problem for Potter’s brother and other children of smokers, though, is that the hypocrisy of their parents can cloud their beliefs. Parents may warn their children against smoking, but what message does it send if they light up a cigarette five minutes later?

“She’s crossed between hating smoking and being hypocritical,” Scott said of her mother. “She tried to quit, but it was probably more for me than for herself. She tells me not to smoke, and then she’s puffing a cigarette the next time I see her.”

“My mom always says she’s going to quit, but she never does,” said Potter. “She says, ‘I’m the grown-up,’ so, you know, what can you do?”

For many children and teens, their parents hold the most influence over their life decisions, including the decision to start smoking. And surprisingly, parental attitudes on smoking appear to be growing more lax.

The results of a 2004 Southwest Wisconsin Youth Survey revealed that 8 percent of the more than 5,700 teens polled said their parents don’t think it’s wrong for teens to smoke. Only 15 percent of those who did smoke suspected that their parents believed it was wrong for them to do so. Another 39 percent of these smokers were uncertain of their parents’ beliefs, and 47 percent - just less than half - felt that their parents wouldn’t mind.

“Even though I would never do it, I know my mom wouldn’t really care if I did. She even offered me a cigarette once. She told me I’ll have to make my own decisions in life, starting there,” Thompson said.

If parents are sending mixed messages to their children about smoking and even encouraging them to do so, what can be done to counteract these negative effects?

Several student groups, such as Raze and Stand, travel to elementary schools to caution young students against tobacco.

“They either know smoking is bad, or they know nothing about it at all,” said St. Albans junior Joey Pennington, president of the school’s Raze chapter.

“As part of Raze, we try to inform the kids about the lies from tobacco companies and emphasize that the smokers themselves aren’t the bad people. It’s the people who get them hooked.”