When I took Syd in for her 4 year check up, our pediatrician asked me if I had been teaching her how to say no to smoking, drugs and alcohol. I was a bit taken back by this statement, what with me being such a huge supporter of all illegal substances :) kidding. I just thought that 4 was too young to be talking about it. She told me no, and that studies show the earlier the better. Syd didn't even know what a cigarette was. I talked with her and immediately afterwards she became my little advocate for stop smoking. Any time we are in the car she would scream out (scares the crap out of me everytime) "MOM, LOOK...He's Smoking !" I would then take that opportunity to say something super educational like, "yip, doesn't he know smoking will kill him."
2 years later she's still doing it. and lucky for me she has now taught the boys so I don't have to :)
We were driving to grandma's tonight and Spencer was the first to yell out, "look, look, he's smoking !"
Sydney then flipped around, Cam was already cranking his neck forward to see. "hurry mom, catch up, catch up, so we can see!"
As I caught up, very solemnly they all took turns saying, "yip, see, he's smoking. he's gonna die"
After a few minutes Syd says, "mom, there are two rules that I memorized that are inside of me. Rule number one, NEVER smoke."
I asked, "what's rule number 2"
She replies, "NEVER let kids smoke"
"pretty good rules Syd."
I guess the earlier the better huh ?
Next up, crack cocaine and meth. I'm thinking it's going to be harder to find examples...you know, just driving around in Baverly. but for the sake of these kids...we'll DO IT ! :)
