12 year old vaping.

[countryroadstakemeh0me]

Hello, I understand at 12 you are not a teen, however it includes teens.

Upon joining secondary, he seemed to have fell into a crowd which seems to be connected with multiple year 9/10s, which isn't a problem in itself, however today I got a text from a friend of mine saying that my son had been vaping with these year 10s.

I have taken his phone off him, but I'm stuck for a long term solution to cut out this behaviour.

Have you spoken to him about it? What did he say?

I have confronted it with him, he does not see a big issue as he ensured the flavour have this ingredient that causes popcorn lung in it, he thinks he is in no danger at all...

I fear it’s quite common. It’s expensive though- remove his cash? Talk to school about the y10s? Lots of schools ban it .

@Aramox schools have banned it within the school, one foot out of school grounds and it's a free for all, plus he is on a level where they would let him have a go, it seems that way anyway.

Bump so I can get more responses

The honest answer is there’s not much you can do. As you approach the teen years you need to parent differently. Of course come down hard if you think your child will respond, but in reality what generally happens is the child will continue with whatever they are doing but lie about it and become more secretive.

The most effective way to parent teens is to arm yourself with knowledge, be open minded and prepared to listen. Keep firm boundaries but pick your battles.

Tell your son why you don’t want him vaping, tell him you understand it is typical for youngsters to experiment. Talk about peer pressure, keep lines of communication open. Chances are he will stop as soon as he gets fed up with it.

Look at the bigger picture- vaping in my opinion is not something to get particularly worked up about, there are far worse things he could be doing like smoking weed or drinking alcohol.

Thank you for a different outlook, I'm considering eveything so any opinion is highly appreciated.