When Smoke Gets in His Eyes
Lately my son has been pretending to smoke cigarettes. He holds a crayon between his pointer and middle fingers, taking long drags just like a wrinkly old lady at a bingo hall and slowly exhaling an imagined blue haze. After a few puffs, he throws the crayon to the floor.
Other times he just walks around with a crayon stuck behind his ear, carefully balancing it as he bends down to pick up his Matchbox cars.
What's next, I wondered, a pack of Camels rolled up in his T-shirt sleeve?
"Hendrick!" I gasped, when I first noticed this behavior. "What are you doing?"
"I'm 'moking," he said. My 2-year-old boy sometimes has trouble with the "sm" sound.
I scolded him for mimicking such an addictive and unhealthy habit. I told him how cigarettes damage your lungs. And then I warned him not to do that anymore, as if that would be the end of the matter.
He seemed to kick the habit for a few days, but this morning Hendrick lit up again and inhaled with gusto. The babysitter and I look inquisitively at our little boy and wondered who he was imitating. No one in our household smokes. No relative, friend or neighbor smokes in his company, at least that I have seen.
So where did he learn to smoke?
"The ladies at the nursing home," he said, referring to the nurses and aides in blue uniforms. "The ladies smoke and the doctor smokes."
Then it dawned on me. We visited my father at the nursing home Sunday and Hendrick spent quite a bit of time watching the birds at their feeder in the courtyard while we finished eating dinner. There were also several nurses sitting on a bench, puffing away, that afternoon. There was even a doctor out there for a while, but I didn't notice a butt in his hand. Only the stethoscope around his neck.
Who would have thought that Hendrick would pay more attention to a few adults on a smoke break than the pigeons pecking at their seeds?
Most parents try so hard to set a good example for their kids. We curtail our own bad habits (at least in front of the children) because we know these smart little sponges absorb everything around them. And they always seem to never forget those things you wish they had not seen or heard.
Parents can only go so far in protecting their babies. Sadly, as we expose our children to the world they will see plenty of behavior from authority figures that contradicts both good science and good sense.
Other times he just walks around with a crayon stuck behind his ear, carefully balancing it as he bends down to pick up his Matchbox cars.
What's next, I wondered, a pack of Camels rolled up in his T-shirt sleeve?
"Hendrick!" I gasped, when I first noticed this behavior. "What are you doing?"
"I'm 'moking," he said. My 2-year-old boy sometimes has trouble with the "sm" sound.
I scolded him for mimicking such an addictive and unhealthy habit. I told him how cigarettes damage your lungs. And then I warned him not to do that anymore, as if that would be the end of the matter.
He seemed to kick the habit for a few days, but this morning Hendrick lit up again and inhaled with gusto. The babysitter and I look inquisitively at our little boy and wondered who he was imitating. No one in our household smokes. No relative, friend or neighbor smokes in his company, at least that I have seen.
So where did he learn to smoke?
"The ladies at the nursing home," he said, referring to the nurses and aides in blue uniforms. "The ladies smoke and the doctor smokes."
Then it dawned on me. We visited my father at the nursing home Sunday and Hendrick spent quite a bit of time watching the birds at their feeder in the courtyard while we finished eating dinner. There were also several nurses sitting on a bench, puffing away, that afternoon. There was even a doctor out there for a while, but I didn't notice a butt in his hand. Only the stethoscope around his neck.
Who would have thought that Hendrick would pay more attention to a few adults on a smoke break than the pigeons pecking at their seeds?
Most parents try so hard to set a good example for their kids. We curtail our own bad habits (at least in front of the children) because we know these smart little sponges absorb everything around them. And they always seem to never forget those things you wish they had not seen or heard.
Parents can only go so far in protecting their babies. Sadly, as we expose our children to the world they will see plenty of behavior from authority figures that contradicts both good science and good sense.
posted by Nina Rizzo at 7:24 AM
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