You and Your Family

  • Be informed! Learn more on the Tobacco Free Kids website.
  • Studies have found that parental actions, attitudes, and opinions about smoking have a great deal of influence on whether or not kids smoke. Parents can take the following actions to help ensure that their children remain (or become) tobacco-free:
    • If you don’t smoke, don’t start! If you do smoke, quit! Research shows that children who have a parent who smokes are more likely to smoke and to be heavier smokers at young ages.  When parents quit smoking, their children become less likely to start smoking and more likely to quit if they already smoke.
    • If you smoke, share your struggles to quit with your children. Kids greatly underestimate how difficult it is to quit smoking. Showing how hard it is to quit (and making sure quitting doesn’t look easy) can help eliminate this misperception. Continuing to try to quit, despite the difficulties, also sends a strong anti-smoking message.
    • Maintain a smoke-free home. A smoke-free home makes children less likely to smoke, even if their parents smoke. By not allowing anyone to smoke in their homes, parents not only make smoking less convenient for their kids but also make a powerful statement that they believe smoking is undesirable.
    • Tell your kids that you don’t want them to smoke and will be disappointed if they do. Parental attitudes, opinions, and feelings about their kids’ smoking status greatly influence whether or not kids will smoke, even when the parents smoke.

For more information, visit the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.