Table of contents:
- 1. You must not smoke yourself
- 2. Always remind children of the negative side of smoking
- 3. Regularly communicate with children
- 4. Get to know the child's friends
- 5. Teach children to refuse the invitation to smoke
- 6. Increase children's self-confidence
- 7. Encourage children's interests and talents
As a child, you may have wondered what it was like to smoke. Children and adolescents are very curious and do not hesitate to experiment. However, from trial and error, you may even become addicted to smoking. Then how do you prevent children from smoking? Remember, smoking bans are not necessarily effective. The more prohibited the child may be more curious. Better to follow these seven smart steps.
1. You must not smoke yourself
Children learn to make decisions and behave through their parents. So stop smoking if you don't want your child to smoke too. Research from the University of Washington has shown that children whose parents smoke are more likely to start smoking at a young age, which is 13 years old. It is useless to prohibit children from smoking or experimenting if you are not free from the smoking habit yourself.
2. Always remind children of the negative side of smoking
Like sex education for children, education about the dangers of smoking must start early. Even if your child is still in kindergarten or elementary school, you must continue to remind your child what the negative effects of smoking are.
For example, you and your family are in a public place and there are people who smoke near you. Tell your child that smoking is harmful to health, irritates other people, and costs a lot of money. So that the child can imagine the impact, give a simple example. Explain that a pack of cigarettes costs the same as a volume of his favorite comic.
3. Regularly communicate with children
Preventing children from smoking does not mean restricting their freedom. There is no need to prohibit children from associating with peers whose parents smoke or watching movies with smoking scenes. The key is to build communication and trust between you and your child.
All advice and values that are instilled will continue to stick with the child, even if his classmates smoke or he often watches movies with smoking scenes. This can be especially useful if your child is offered a cigarette when you are not around. Restraining your child will actually make him look for opportunities behind your back.
4. Get to know the child's friends
In addition to communicating, getting to know your child's friends firsthand can help you monitor their associations. Take your little one's friends over to the house so you can chat with them too. From there you can judge whether there is a tendency for children to try cigarettes with their friends.
Looking from the outside alone cannot guarantee that children are 100 percent free from smoking. 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 refuse the invitation to smoke
Even though children do not show a tendency to smoke at an early age, arm them with the ability to refuse suggestions from their friends. Under peer pressure, saying "No," or "My parents said I shouldn't," is not enough. Teach children to look for compelling reasons such as, "I don't like the smell of cigarettes," or "My grandfather is sick from smoking,".
6. Increase children's self-confidence
Children and teens may start smoking because they want to feel accepted by their peers. It could also be because smoking makes him feel like an adult. This means that the child lacks self-confidence. So, to prevent children from smoking you must increase the self-confidence of children.
Children must know that smoking is not the only way to be accepted in the relationship. He also must believe that there are other people and friends who want to accept him as he is. You can also entrust your child with important responsibilities so that they feel more mature, such as sleeping in their own room.
7. Encourage children's interests and talents
Many children smoke because they feel they are getting something, such as satisfaction or a relaxing sensation from cigarettes. This means that the child's life is less productive and meaningful for him. It is better to encourage children to pursue their interests and talents so that they are far from the negative effects of smoking at an early age.
Encourage children to join sports extracurricular activities so that their environment and interactions focus on physical fitness, not on things that damage health. Engaging in other positive activities can also help your child find healthy stress relief apart from smoking.
