Froglet Posted May 21, 2014 Posted May 21, 2014 Yesterday I was really intrigued to see one of my boys in our making area. He never normally goes anywhere near it. It turned out that he was cutting up an art straw so he could use it for smoking. I was a bit taken aback. We had a general conversation about smoking - mainly led by one of the girls who said her daddy smoked but that he said she shouldn't because it would make you poorly. I feel like I could have done more but I'm not sure what. What would you do/have done?
Fredbear Posted May 21, 2014 Posted May 21, 2014 Hi children emulate what they see and hear around them, sometimes for the good or bad. I think I might have said something like " whats that then" to see what the response was. Then if the discussion allowed exploring things that keep us healthy or not. I would also be speaking to the parents of the child so they knew the children were copying what they had obviously seen.
Andreamay Posted May 21, 2014 Posted May 21, 2014 one of my earliest memories was role playing my parents smoking!! you saw everyone back then in the sixtys! I have never smoked or ever wanted too! I agree with fredbear its just children mimicking what they see! Its a little tricky with how you mention it though IMO as you dont want to put their parents down for smoking! or frighten the children! 'you might die' if you smoke for example (Im not saying you would say that ofcourse) but even you could get very poorly can alarm some! It sounds like you handled it well froglet its interesting cos we havent seen it for along time!
lashes2508 Posted May 21, 2014 Posted May 21, 2014 One of our boys came to preschool with an electronic cigarette ! Had it in his pocket , got it out and said ' me dad gave me this fag ' , slightly shocked to say the least but we explained it wasn't something to have at preschool , explained to mum when she came to collect him, he had found it and obviously thought he would have it , it was not working thankfully , sometimes it's children wanting to be like someone they love and their way of mimicking their behaviour. 1
Stargrower Posted May 21, 2014 Posted May 21, 2014 Not really relevant but we once found a cigarette lighter in a child's nappy when we changed him!! 1
Froglet Posted May 21, 2014 Author Posted May 21, 2014 one of my earliest memories was role playing my parents smoking!! you saw everyone back then in the sixtys! I have never smoked or ever wanted too! I agree with fredbear its just children mimicking what they see! Its a little tricky with how you mention it though IMO as you dont want to put their parents down for smoking! or frighten the children! 'you might die' if you smoke for example (Im not saying you would say that ofcourse) but even you could get very poorly can alarm some! It sounds like you handled it well froglet its interesting cos we havent seen it for along time! The scaring them aspect was what was worrying me. We did have a general chat about people they know who smoked and the boy said his dad did sometimes. I wasn't exactly bothered by it more just surprised - I've never seen it before! Don't quite know how. 1
Panders Posted May 21, 2014 Posted May 21, 2014 I suppose people are more aware now and don't smoke around children as much as they once did. Golly when I was a nipper you could buy sweet cigarettes (now called candy sticks), books of sweet matches and packs of sweet tobacco, chocolate cigars etc. I don't think you can go banging the drum here against smoking, treat it like any other unhealthy practice, but what concerns me is that as more people use these e cigarettes, particularly the silver pipe type ones, children will perhaps see these as desirable items and that is a real danger to them if they get hold of them. 1
HappyMaz Posted May 26, 2014 Posted May 26, 2014 Not really relevant but we once found a cigarette lighter in a child's nappy when we changed him!! I once found a lighter and a packet of cigarettes in a child's bag. His mother was mortified when I reunited her with them at the end of the session! Back in my childhood we had candy sticks made to look just like cigarettes - I ate them, pretended to smoke them and I grew up to be a non-smoker (the only person in my family who doesn't or hasn't smoked). Sounds to me like you did just the right thing, Froglet.
hali Posted May 26, 2014 Posted May 26, 2014 I used to do that too M and I am and always have been a non smoker
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