Tell me your opinion, dear internets. My four year old was walking around today with a plastic pink toy spoon in her mouth. This would not be particularly unusual except that she announced that she was pretending to smoke a cigarette.
Now we have talked about cigarettes and how they are bad for you and smell bad and this child has a particularly sensitive nose so she I am by no means concerned that she is going to be sneaking smokes out behind the school during recess. But I am wondering what is the best response to this kind of play? My initial reaction was to say that it’s not funny to pretend to be smoking and that it’s a bad habit that makes people sick. But I wonder if it’s something I should just let go? Is it really a big deal? I mean, kids play. So what? Perhaps if she play-acts smoking now she will be less tempted to try it in real life?
Am I crazy for over-thinking such a minor interaction? Probably. I am not really worried that this is going to seriously affect her but I am curious what other moms out there think about this issue. Have you encountered the same thing with your kids? What did you do?
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September 27th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Since you’re asking for opinions…
I haven’t encountered this exact scenario, but I think that you’ve given her enough reasons as to why smoking is bad, so it’s fine at this point put your foot down and just say “no, we don’t pretend that”. It’s not like you’re just saying “no, because I said so” with no reasons. She’s young enough to think you’re the high commander, so take advantage of it now!
I think she will be more tempted to smoke in real life if you make a big huge deal of it, and don’t do any explaining (and aside from all peer pressure, of course). If you’re just nonchalant, and are like “we don’t do that because…so please don’t play that way”, she will probably not make a big deal of it. You can guess what would happen if you were like “Avery, NOOOOOO!!! Oh, my goodness, I can’t believe my child is turning out this way!!!”: she would be more intrigued. If she truly wants to know more about smoking (or anything else), she will ask you.
It’s probably like explaining anything else. Like in our house, we explain everything the same way: why we don’t go to McDonald’s, why we don’t shop at Wal-Mart, why we don’t hit each other, why we keep our hands out of our pants, why we don’t wake up people when they’re sleeping, etc. Of course, there are exceptions, like, when you’re explaining about running across the road, it needs to be a little more serious!
Then again, my kids are the same age as yours, so I’m no expert!
October 1st, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Not a clue…isn’t parenting fun?