Vaping

[Playinwithfire]

Teen vaping!! How should I approach this? Especially as they've been caught before and a discussion has been had regarding vaping! Now they're not giving a crap or respecting boundaries i.e., doing in there room when friends are over, sneaking outside etc..

How old they are will massively dictate how you can deal with this.

Withdraw privileges for breaking house rules

They are 15.
We've tried withdrawing but it's like they just don't care.

How are they getting access to vapes? Are they disposable ones they're buying or refillable?

I'm assuming friends in school- disposable. They're flat out denying they're doing it again but we've seen them AND smelt it.

You can try punitive measures all you want, take everything away and ground them. I suspect this will not achieve what you want it to - ie, them to stop vaping. This will or won’t happen as a result of what they and their peer group decide.

its difficult enough to stop these things if you even want to. Which they don’t at the moment I assume, as they don’t see them as a problem. It’s a very challenging situation and no easy answers.
you could try, depending on their maturity, a really adult approach of explanation combined with bribery or motivation to stop, but the success of this depends in many factors obviously.

not much help, sorry, just trying to give some perspective - they’re at an age when behaviour like this is almost impossible to police externally, it has to come from them.
you have to try to persuade, and make stopping more attractive.

It's a really tricky one and depends on the age of your teen. Eg just turned 13 I might try some consequences that would bother them. An 18 year old is more likely to dig their heels in and hide it if you do this.

I have always tried to be open and non judgemental about my older teen boys experimenting with vapes etc although I do hate them. This leaves the door open for them to chat to you but ultimately make their own decisions. There will be other consequences in the long term eg health, financial and whatever consequences their school imposes.

A teen who understands you are treating them like an adult is more likely to behave as an adult and vice versa.