[Guest]

Can anyone help me with ideas on telling my parents I smoke. I'm 14 so I know it's not supposed to be but it is what it is. I've smoked close to 6 months now without them knowing, but it's becoming a hassle and I have run out of cigarettes. I'm up to 2 packs a day and now I'm going out of my mind. It's gotten so bad that for a tobacco fix I went to Marsh and bought a thing of Grizzly wintergreen just to give me a bit of nicotine to keep me settled. Can anyone help me?

 

[sharkmouth]

Figure out how to quit now......at some point youll WANT to quit and it'll be FAR worse then!!

 

[aslan]

Go to a local hospital with a cancer ward and talk to the smokers there.
Stan
PS I'm sure that you won't end up there!

 

[mclements77]

I agree with Sharkmouth, QUIT SMOKING!!! I started when I was 12, and I am now 30. By the time you want to quit later, it will be much harder. If I could go back in time and change one thing, I would have never started smoking in the first place.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Sharkmouth is right. Focus on quitting instead of worrying how to go public. I smoked for 15 years, but quit 13 years ago. Smoking is a filthy habit and sets you up for an early death. At 14, you probably still think you're immortal. Visit a respiratory ward at the hospital if you need incentive to quit. Trust me, no one over the age of 18 thinks smoking is cool anymore.

 

[Gene_J]

Wow you picked up an expensive habit. In some states cigarettes cost over 4 bucks a pack! So say maybe 63 dollars a week!

Do you have any idea how much that is? If you save it you could practically retire at age 21! That would be 22,931 dollars! That could be quite a classic Mustang!

Give it up dude!

 

[nymustang]

Man, in New York cigs are $7 a pack. Besides at any age let alone 14 that is unbelievably unhealthy. I'm 20 and its true, all my friends who smoked at your age are trying to quit now. Do yourself a favor and quit NOW. We all know someone who died MUCH too early because of smoking.

 

[kketell]

Don't bother telling them you smoke. Quit smoking!!! Then you could tell them that you tried smoking and it was not for you.

 

[stang6992]

i agree with everyone else, answer this question truthfully. WHAT IS THE POINT OF SMOKING, WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO YOU?? i DARE you to answer that question truthfully and tell everyone on here why. if its different then, "to be cool, to make ppl like me, to fit in" then you should quit, that simple. if your so called "friends" dont like you b/c you quit, then what kind of friends are they. thats if your answer was one of those statements i said. then look at the money side of it, say they cost 4 bucks each, you pay 5 bucks b/c you cant by them yourself and a "dealer" has to get them for you. thats 70 bucks a week, 280 bucks a month. you could by a manifold for that, in just one month and you have to do less work to accomplish that. over a year, you could by an entire engine for a car. at that time, youd be 15. getting close to driving age, and how many 15 year olds have a car that has 2500+ dollars in just an engine, that could create some serious HP if you wanted it too. think about it, and if still not convienced, go to the hospital and get a tour of all the smokers in there. its not pretty to see, trust me.

 

[TFOB]

YOu need to quit smoking. Go to your parents tell them what happend. Tell them you want to quit but can't.
FOr one thing it is illegal for you to smoke, Another it is so bad for you you can;t even beleive how bad.
All the money you spend on those coffin nails you could put into a car.

 

[RichLong]

I don't care if you have to use prercings all around your mouth to seal it shut, QUIT. Run away from this nasty habit (all tobacco!!) as fast as you can. Deal with the withdrawl and get past it.
I chewed sunflower seeds to help me quit. Prevention magazine suggested it.
Don't be stupid!!
Now, tell MOM and DAD you've been doing it, that you feel stupid, and you desperately want there help to fight it. Do it now.
Now....go to your room young man!! ::

 

[Gene_J]

OK. here is another idea. Save your money and spend it on women!

No kidding! Women are a much better investment than cigarettes! Well not really but they are a heck of lot more fun!

Wait. You're 14. Never mind.

No wait. Women are better. But you will never get a date if you smell like a burning couch.

 

[boss351]

Geez, they are starting young. I used to smoke, but quit cold turkey well over 3 years ago. To tell you the truth, the thing that made me quit was a woman. How the hell are you getting ciggarettes at age 14 anyway? QUIT NOW... WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

 

[mark67p]

I am not going to preach to you. 8 years ago I was in the same shoes as you. If you are going to tell them, which I never did, I was caught, I would just come out with it. You want to smoke like a man, then you need to be a man and tell them. They are prob. going to be pissed regardless of how you do it so just get it over with. I too hope y ou can muster up the will power to quit. I have a hard time myself doing that! GL

 

[FordDude]

OK so everybody has said that you should quit. But you asked how to tell the parents. Do your parents smoke? If the answer is no then they already know that you smoke. Dude you reek of cigarette smoke. They smell you when you come into the house, your mom smells in your clothes when she washes them. But if they do smoke then just ask good 'ol mom or dad for a smoke next time they light one up. Not your brand? Well then just say I gotta go outside for a smoke. Sounds kinda hard huh? I think that it would just be easier to quit. But what do we know? We all just old farts who have been there and done that. You have to find out for yourself. Good luck on kicking the habit. fd

 

[Guest]

The real issue is perception. Until I was 32 or so, believed I was immortal as do all younger humans (actually, most of them figure this out by the time they are in their mid to late twenties… I was a little immature OK????). And so therefore health, death, emphysema, heart disease, and other little things like that did not preoccupy my thoughts… nor did I care one wit. Yes, I smoked from the age of 20 to 25.

Years later, one of the odd little things I got to find out about people in my line of work is that we all get to die… sooner or later. No discrimination here, no priorities, no checklist, fist come, first serve; you get to go with no reservations or pre-fight check in for your journey. You can simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time, make a minor split second error in judgment, looked left when you should of looked right, had one less drink or not driven home at all, etc. We’ve recovered the bodies and completed the homicide investigations for these people from 18 months to 87 years old. How many? As I sit here for this post, I can remenber 17 or so over the last 9 years. If I were at the office and looking through the files for Dade County (Miami) and Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale) it would be over 35. Most did not produce their own premature demise. It was generated from the actions of other people. Soooo… give your self a head start.

Here’s the secret of life… LATER VERSES SOONER (you have a lotta stuff to do). The trick in life is not dying young, hell anyone can do that, its not hard at all, trust me.

As made a few tens of thousands of years ago, the warranty on your body is good up to around the age of 41. After that, your failing eyesight, long lost teeth, and horrible ability to fight off disease or to be able to hunt for the group or defendant it made you a good candidate for the “why don’t you sleep outside in the snow tonight grandpa” award from the others in the tribe.

Medicine, science, diet, nutrition, and most importantly “common sense” (if you see fresh bear droppings at the entrance of a cave, to you really need to see if the bear is in there?) has given us the life span we see today.

Your lungs were never designed to inhale anything but air… you make he choice,
and good luck.

Sorry for the length, but if it makes a difference for one…

 

[sixtyfivepony]

just quit

 

[sidewinder]

Smoking killed my dad and he left 6 kids 4 of which were under age and I was 13 myself. I'm sure you know my take on it. Hell tell your parents it may be the best thing you do.

 

[Gas_Pumps]

Quit NOW and don't ever light up another one. If you really need help, find an Seventh Day Adventist hospital near you and ask them about their program. Works great, virtually no cost and they never mention their religious affiliation.

I am now 68 and they helped me quit for good about 25 years ago. I am paying the price for having smoked back them. Some degree of enphysema shortens my endurance. Wish to hell I had never started.

Good Luck, listen to all of the other advice you are getting. I don't think there is a single VMFer that would tell you that smoking is a great idea. Equate the financial cost to things you like to do; like Mustangs or flying airplanes etc.

 

[Guest]

I know that you are probably thinking that you don't want to quit smoking and that the answers you are getting are not what you want to hear but listen, I used to smoke 2 packs a day. My husband and I quit just before we got married. My father (who I was very close too), died of lung cancer, his brother, my uncle died 2 years later of lung cancer, and his oldest brother also died of lung cancer. It is horrible to watch someone you love, die that way. My niece was 14 when her best friend's mother died of lung cancer. She came home crying and begging her mother to quit smoking because she didn't want her mother to die that way. Please, do yourself and everyone who loves you a favor, QUIT SMOKING! Think of the money you will save, and it also saves you from having to tell your parents.
To quit, you will really have to work at it. It isn't easy! I know, my husband and I quit cold turkey! It wasn't easy but we did it! Please try! Good luck!