Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To HATE my daughter smoking and not allow it on the balcony

128 replies

HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 14:15

We're in Southeast Asia (for context - always hot here!)
We live in a flat with a nice balcony with patio furniture off the living room, a not so nice but OK service balcony and small balconies off two of the bedrooms (mine and dh's room and my 14 year old DD2's room). My 17 year old DD1 does not have a balcony.

DD1 has started smoking a few months ago. I HATE it with a passion. My father died of lung cancer and I just hate everything to do with cigarettes. DD1 had some mental health issues and had been drinking, using weed and nitrous oxide too but this has now stopped thankfully but the cigarettes have remained. She's on about 10-20 a day, it's disgusting. Even worse, DD2 has also started and will sneak on to her balcony to smoke.

Anyway, DD1 has been forbidden from smoking on DD2's balcony. So she sits on our nice main balcony and puffs away. School is remote at the moment so she'll sit out there for hours smoking. This means we have to keep the doors shut and it's hot as no breeze so we have to turn on a/c earlier than we might do otherwise plus it wafts into my bedroom (I'm wfh too) so I have shut my window and then turn on a/c. Our balcony furniture smells, there's ash everywhere, the ashtray is always overflowing and no one else can sit on the balcony because she's alwys there smoking. I hate it.

If it were up to me, I'd not allow it and she could go down to the car park to smoke if she wanted to. I feel like we're facilitating her smoking. My DH believes she has the 'right' to smoke on the balcony and I'm being precious about it all. He also constantly says 'well, at least it's not weed/nitrous oxide/alcohol' which I don't feel is a valid argument. I feel very undermined and that I'm being bulldozed by both of them. They tell me I'm being controlling.

It kind of got to a head tonight when DD1 had a friend over who is a mutual friend with DD2 and also smokes. They went to DD2's room and locked the door. I got suspicious when they didn't answer when I knocked and opened with the spare key. THen I found DD2 smoking with DD1 and friend on her balcony. DD1 had offered DD2 a cigarette despite not being allowed to smoke there. So then DD1 and friend wanted to go and smoke on balcony and I got really angry because it's bad enough with DD1's smoking but after having given one to DD2, then I need to put up with DD1 and friend sitting out on balcony? So I told them no, DD1 goes to DH and tells him I said no and can he help, in the meantime I go to kitchen, come back and DD1 and friend on the balcony smoking. I go out and tell them that I don't agree and they can go to the car park. DD1 calls DH who says he think it's fine for them to smoke on the balcony.

I just feel really powerless to stop the smoking despite knowing how the damage it causes. But I wonder if it's an emotional reaction knowing how it killed my Dad with a painful and horrible early death. Am I being unreasonable and controlling? Or would you let your teen DDs smoke in this kind of situation (DH agrees we need to stop DD2 but it's so hard with DD1 constantly smoking)?

OP posts:
MissBPotter · 21/05/2021 14:18

I’m surprised at how chilled you’re being actually, no way would I be this relaxed! Smoking would be a total no.

HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 14:21

I'm not chilled. I'm really upset. But my DH and DD1 make me feel like I'm in the wrong here

OP posts:
HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 14:22

DH said I was in the wrong for 'bursting into the room' when they'd locked the door and not respecting their privacy.
I knew DD2 would be smoking, there was no other reason to lock the door.

OP posts:
Londonnight · 21/05/2021 14:23

It would be a no from me too. If she wants to smoke, she goes outside away from the house. There is no way I would have smoking in my house or garden.

HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 14:26

According to DH and DD1, I am being unreasonable to expect her to stop, that at least she isn't taking all the other stuff, that it's her home just as much as mine so she has equal rights and that I should just put up with it as she is closing the door to the balcony.

OP posts:
1starwars2 · 21/05/2021 14:50

Giving a 14 year old cigarettes is totally out of order though. I would focus on that. Dd1 is almost an adult, but personally I wouldn't want my children smoking in my home.
However at least you know she is safe....

Nightfeedwatcher · 21/05/2021 14:52

YANBU

If she HAD to smoke it would be somewhere that makes it inconvenient to do so...at the end of the drive or something far away from the house.
Absolutely no to the 14yr old being dragged into it, I really feel for you!
I can’t understand why your husband isn’t agreeing with you!

Mydarlingmyhamburger · 21/05/2021 14:54

Unless your dd is paying the rent then she doesn’t get a say in what the smoking rules are on your property

HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 14:59

I feel like crying. So consensus is it's NOT controllign behaviour not to allow a 17 year olf to smoke on the balcony? I fee llike I've been gaslighted by both of them that I'm in the wrong

Right now DD1 is sitting there, smoking, chatting to DD2. DD2 isn't smoking but how the hell will she stop while being constantly exposed to cigarettes like this.

OP posts:
WyldEast · 21/05/2021 15:00

Unfortunately, you and DH need to come to an agreement. He gets as much of a say as you do on this. Have you raised it with him when DDs aren't there?

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep · 21/05/2021 15:00

Your DH is a twat
Has he forgotten that they are children he is supposed to be raising not adult flatmates??

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep · 21/05/2021 15:00

@WyldEast

Unfortunately, you and DH need to come to an agreement. He gets as much of a say as you do on this. Have you raised it with him when DDs aren't there?
Does he? Why??
HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 15:01

@Mydarlingmyhamburger

Unless your dd is paying the rent then she doesn’t get a say in what the smoking rules are on your property
So when I say something along those lines, DH says 'I pay the rent too and I allow her to smoke on the balcony' Where do we go from there?!
OP posts:
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep · 21/05/2021 15:01

Why does your DH think it's ok for the children to smoke?

HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 15:01

Yes and it's always a row. He insists I'm being controlling and that it's DD's "right" to smoke on the balcony as this is her home too.

OP posts:
MissyB1 · 21/05/2021 15:02

Your dd needs to get her own place - then she can stink it out to her heart’s content! Cheeky madam trying to tell you how it should be when she doesn’t pay the rent or mortgage. As for encouraging her 14 year old sister to smoke well that’s bloody awful!

However your main problem here is your Dh unfortunately. His standards are clearly very different to yours. To be honest his attitude to this would piss me off.

HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 15:02

@Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Why does your DH think it's ok for the children to smoke?
DD2 he agrees she shouldn't smoke but thinks that I am being unreasonable to just expect her to stop.

DD1 he says that she is old enough to decide and that at least it's not all the illegal shit she was doing before.

OP posts:
osbertthesyrianhamster · 21/05/2021 15:03

@Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Why does your DH think it's ok for the children to smoke?
They're not in the UK. In some places, it's much more common and among older teens not considered 'children' smoking.
HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 15:04

@MissyB1

Your dd needs to get her own place - then she can stink it out to her heart’s content! Cheeky madam trying to tell you how it should be when she doesn’t pay the rent or mortgage. As for encouraging her 14 year old sister to smoke well that’s bloody awful!

However your main problem here is your Dh unfortunately. His standards are clearly very different to yours. To be honest his attitude to this would piss me off.

Yes, this is the problem. DD1 just calls for Daddy when I try to lay down the law (not just with smoking but this is the issue of quarrels right now). I feel very undermined.
OP posts:
HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 15:05

@osbertthesyrianhamster
We're British living abroad. Cigarettes ARE more accessible here but DH's attitudes shouldn't have changed!

OP posts:
GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 21/05/2021 15:06

It is up to you! You shouldn’t be allowing her to smoke full stop, she’s a child!

I couldn’t smoke in front of my parents even into my 20s as they’d complain every single time. If you want someone not to smoke you need to make a fuss every single time they light a cigarette and not let it become accepted that they are a smoker.

HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 15:08

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

It is up to you! You shouldn’t be allowing her to smoke full stop, she’s a child!

I couldn’t smoke in front of my parents even into my 20s as they’d complain every single time. If you want someone not to smoke you need to make a fuss every single time they light a cigarette and not let it become accepted that they are a smoker.

Yes but what do I do when DH allows it? They both tell me I am controlling If DD even smoked on the service balcony at the back I wouldn't mind as much but DH backs her up that it is less comfortable and she has the right to sit and smoke on the nice balcony.
OP posts:
maddening · 21/05/2021 15:08

I would swap dd1 and dd2s rooms so dd1 has a balcony and that is the only place she can smoke. Dd2 not allowed in there as she can't be trusted to not smoke and her sister can't be trusted not to give her cigarettes.

murbblurb · 21/05/2021 15:08

just tell her she reeks like a dog turd and you don't want to smell it. If she wants to smoke, she goes somewhere else.

'but it isn't illegal drugs' - she's got a low bar, hasn't she? And no, she does not encourage her young sister to smoke. Hasn't she heard that is causes cancer?

HateCigarettes · 21/05/2021 15:10

@maddening

I would swap dd1 and dd2s rooms so dd1 has a balcony and that is the only place she can smoke. Dd2 not allowed in there as she can't be trusted to not smoke and her sister can't be trusted not to give her cigarettes.
That's what I said! But again I was told I was being controlling and that I don't get to decide who gets which room since the DDs do not want to swap.
OP posts: