To wonder if passive smoking was the reason I was so rubbish at PE

[Comedycook]

So I am a child of the 1980s. I always thought passive smoking had had no effect on me but recently I've been thinking and I'm not so sure.

So my parents both smoked throughout my childhood. Pretty sure my mum smoked during her pregnancy. They always smoked indoors and in the car...no windows open.

Anyway, I've always been crap at PE...now I know there are many factors which could affect that. But I'm talking from a really young age where I can't see any significant difference between myself and my peers. I remember being 4 years old in the playground and any type of running race or game being last and last by a long way every single time. Now I wasn't a fat child at all. I was thin throughout my primary school years...I also wasn't particularly sedentary compared to the other kids. I did swimming and ballet and all the usual stuff. Nor did I have an unhealthy diet. So why was I constantly so awful at running and last every time? Was thinking to myself maybe it was down to the passive smoking?. I also suffer greatly from any cold or respiratory virus...it always takes me a long time to recover.

Anyway, I'm not especially traumatized or upset by any of this ..I'm literally just wondering... anyone have any thoughts?

Some people just aren't very sporty. DH parents both smoked and he's still athletic in his 70s. We never did and neither of our kids are.

My parents did the same, I was terrible at PE because I was terrible

It is possible to just not be good at something without making up a reason for it

It could be, people have died from second hand smoke, Roy Castle being the most famous I think.

It's unlikely you would be the only one passive smoking in your class though, it was fairly standard back then, parents may have set children from the room Or cracked a window but it still did damage. So it could be that you were just a bit rubbish at running or maybe 'mild' exercise induced asthma if you got a tight chest it doesn't always come with the stereotypical and scary attacks. DD laps people running in the summer but is miles behind in the winter as the cold air affects her breathing.

Have you tried running now, couch to 5k? To see how you do now out of a smoky environment

Lots of us who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s lived in houses where DP smoked. You could even smoke in the cinema and restaurants back then! More of us would have been rubbish at PE and public health would have realised the dangers of passive smoking a lot sooner if many children from smoking households couldn’t run whilst those from non smoking households could.

Were you anaemic? I often started a race well but ran out of puff quickly. I often put that down to anaemia which was diagnosed later. I could easily be wrong though. I might just have been rubbish!

You can just be shit at physical things for no reason. I don't think it's very likely that your parents smoking had any baring on your PE ability. My mum smoked like a train when I was a child and I wasn't shit at it, didn't like it but I wasn't bad

I can't run at all...I've never been able to. Even when I've increased my fitness levels through gym classes I've never been good at running. It's a real struggle.

I’m sure it would have affected you to some degree but as someone has said above, a lot of other children in your class would have been in the same position. It was totally normal for adults to light up indoors or in a car next to a child, in the 80’s and most of the 90s. Even our school bus driver used to smoke.

My mother and other relatives would smoke around us as children and we all had horrendous asthma and were hospitalised numerous times as babies 🫤 My mother doesn’t seem to accept that her smoking could possibly have anything to do with this!

My parents were the same but i was very sporty and active, still am

I think it's very unlikely that passive smoking made you bad at PE. Apart from anything, you would absolutely not have been the only kid in your class who was exposed to cigarette smoke back then, so there were other kids who were also breathing in smoke every day who were still better at running than you. FWIW, my dad and my brother were both very good runners while also being actual smokers.

Some people just aren't really built for running. Plenty of very fit people are not actually great runners at all, especially without a proper training programme. Running well is a skill, not just a matter of lung capacity and weight.

When I was at school in the 80s and early 90s, any running at school was basically the teacher just telling us to run a certain distance. We were never shown how to pace ourselves, what a good running technique is etc, how to time our breathing etc. So basically the kids who were naturally good runners did OK and the kids who weren't naturally good runners (including me) never improved in the slightest.

No, I don't think it has anything to do with it. Running is to do with co-ordination and technique. There will be plenty of kids with chain smoking parents who were good runners. Some people are just rubbish at stuff like that. I remember a girl at school who's run was a sort of weird shuffle and no faster than her walking.

It's a thought. I am enthusiastic rather than skilled at sports. My parents were more sporty though and were brought up around smokers.

I certainly found that being active and fit stopped me getting properly into smoking. I found that breathing was not underrated.

I'm exactly the same as you! I physically can't run. I can do fast cross trainer, HIIT classes, Zumba very high intensity but I simply can't run.

I had to share a room with my mum and she smoked in bed all through the night as she had insomnia. She was a 60 a day smoker, all in the house. It's unbelievable really.

Do you have any of the other signs of Dyspraxia?

These are the list of symptoms for children. (sorry, not great amount of lists for adults)

• Difficulty with walking up and down stairs.
• Difficulty with balance — they may bump into objects, fall frequently or seem clumsy.
• Difficulty with sports and activities, they have difficulty with writing, doing up their buttons or shoelaces, or running and jumping.
• Difficulty with writing, drawing/colouring and using scissors compared to other children of their age.
• Difficulty getting dressed, fastening buttons, brushing their teeth and tying shoelaces.
• They become tired easily

I have it, and I had exactly the same relationship to running that you describe. I can do it, but I just am not fast and run out of energy very quickly.

I was bad at pe because I was bad at it! That never changed.

I was a child in the 70s and 80s to non smoking parents, which put me in a minority in my circle. I was rubbish at PE, a mixture of natural preference for the sedentary, poor coordination and lack of physical confidence. I can't say that the smoking status or general healthiness of background seemed to have much influence on my peers. The stand out most athletic person came from a home that by today's standards would be very neglectful, passive smoking, shortage of food, the lot. If anything, the kids whis parents worried about smoking, healthy foods etc tended to be the 'posh' sheltered kids who were encouraged to stay in and read, play instruments etc rather than roam, and who tended to do well academically and be poorer at anything physical.

Roy Castle did die from second hand smoking but his case was rather exceptional in that he played the Trumpet in Smokey night clubs night after ni so would have had to take large gulps of air before playing.

No nothing like that. And actually in terms of sports and pe...I'm not uncoordinated. I just couldn't keep up and wasn't fast. I can understand why as you get older, your fitness can decline. But I don't understand why as a four year old I was so unfit compared to my peers if I wasn't overweight or sedentary. I mean it's not like they were all in the gym every day whilst I slobbed out. I was a thin child doing the same activities as the other kids...I was just miles behind when they were running round..

I was the same as you OP in that I couldn't keep up in PE, despite being raised by a sporty mum, having a sporty brother and having an athletic figure. In my 20s I was diagnosed with asthma. I wonder if I also had a little bit of asthma at school that was mild enough to be undetected but still enough to affect my sporting ability, which then meant I had no confidence in sport.

My DF died from asthma when I was a young child. I wonder if he'd been more a part of my upbringing I wouldn't have felt like the unsporty loser in my family!

@Comedycook were you a younger child in the year or very slim?

I always came first in school races not because I'm particularly good at running but because I was born in September and head and shoulders taller than everyone else. I wasn't fat but definitely more athletic build than others, more muscle the faster you move I'd assume. Birth month and height has quite a lot to do with performance in Primary both academically and physically.

I was one of the eldest in the year too...I'm short though. Was slim in primary school but not alarmingly so.

I had a heavy smoking father (who died of lung cancer) but despite being the youngest in my year I always excelled at sport. My dad was a keen runner who ran marathons for fun, played football and hockey though.

On the other hand most colds do go to my chest.

I was last in almost every race I ran, but I swam competitively and loved horse riding. Running was something I just couldn't seem to do. Nothing at all to do with passive smoking and everything to do with natural ability. Contracted glandular fever aged 12 and that stopped all sports for a long time as I was left with ongoing issues, now in my 50's and I walk and hike but still can't run. I can walk kilometres daily but not run any distance without being wrecked. It's simply that we are all different.

So what would you do if someone came into this thread and said “Aha! It was your parents smoking that ended your bid to become the first 4yo Olympian”?

Are you planning a sit down with everyone who smoked around you as a child to tell them how they wronged you? Planning a lawsuit against tobacco companies to seek compensation over that race you lost? Present your old school with irrefutable proof that the trophy you lost out in some 40 years ago should be stripped from the alleged winner and be given to you? Something else?

Sorry but this is bonkers!

I've often wondered if this is why I'm so rubbish at sports. I can't seem to breathe deeply but my lung function is very good.