Vaping - Do you allow your kid to do this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here -so I didn't phrase it properly - now "Allow" per se - but these kids are OPENLY vaping - it's not like pot or alcohol or even smoking where they have to sneak around. Have you seen your kids Vaping - or their friends? What did you do?

If I saw my teenager vaping with her friends, I would confiscate the vape and take her home, where we would have a serious conversation about it being bad for her. Frankly, I'd prefer her to smoke cigarettes over vaping - it's terrible and gross, but I'd smell it a mile away and the health effects are a lot better understood than the "smokeless" tobacco that is entirely chemical.

Unlike a number of people on this thread, I've actually used a nicotine vape and a THC vape before (not regularly, but because I was curious what the difference was and anticipated probably having to talk about it with my kids). I think it caters to the worst impulse control issues we have as a culture. If someone wants to smoke a cigarette, they have to go outside these days. If you vape, none of that really applies. You can just do it anywhere. I'm a therapist and I had a client take a hit of a vape pen DURING SESSION and be confused about why it was inappropriate - an adult in his 40s, not a child.

In any case, I think that most parents do not encourage vaping of nicotine or THC or any other kind of substance use. Teenagers are pretty well known to experiment. If I actually SAW my child doing any of that, I would intervene with her directly. If I found the vape pen or wine coolers in her room or heroin, I'd confiscate it and we'd be having a serious conversation about the whole business. At this point, the only "drug stuff" I would not feel that way about is Narcan.