Smoking is a choice that is made by that one person but what about the people around them. 
How does it affect them?

Children that grow up in a household that has one or both parent smoking are no stranger to what a cigarette looks like. They are also used to smelling the smoke on their parents or around them, it becomes a nostalgic scent as a child grows up. Doesn’t sound so bad, a child remembering a parent by the smell. 

Yet what if I told you second-hand smoke can affect a child’s mental state along with their health, would it still not sound so bad that a child is inhaling that smoke?

As we all know second-hand smoke affects a person’s health but for children, it can cause wheezing and coughing, can trigger asthma attacks, ear infections, and there is also a study that shows children that have a parent that smokes are sick more often[1]. Their lungs also don’t grow as big as a child that doesn’t have a parent that smokes[1].

The effects on children are not just physical they are also mental. A study in Britain and Brazil showed that moms that smoked may trigger behavioral problems in their children[2]

It’s shocking to think that a choice to smoke as a parent can affect your child, but it does. A child can feel lonely and unwanted when a parent has to leave to grab a smoke while in the middle of playing or spending quality time with them  They can start to think, ‘why is a cigarette more important than me’? Children want attention from their parents and might start to act up when they feel not seen. In the study from Britain and Brazil mothers that smoked increased the chances that a child would be aggressive, break rules, bully, cheat by 53%[2].

The concept of underage smoking with young boy and family

Smoking is a choice one person makes yet it affects your child in so many different ways. Fromm physically to mentally a parent or both parents that smoke is having a side effect on their children. Quitting smoking is hard and sometimes we need help to do it, MindCotine is here to help you through it for the health of yourself and your loved ones.


Renee Rameshwar
Health and Wellness Copywriter
https://www.reneeragency.com/

Bibliography

1-     Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke,

2- How Parental Smoking Affects Kids,