tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953392920694352732.post5104675702065230685..comments2023-04-26T06:42:06.117-07:00Comments on The Empathic Pediatrician: Forbidden FruitDr. Wolffe Nadoolmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10872214677834263346noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953392920694352732.post-79340560434263864582009-05-11T19:14:00.000-07:002009-05-11T19:14:00.000-07:00Dr. Wolffe - another great, and provocative, post....Dr. Wolffe - another great, and provocative, post. I'd like to second your points with a real life experience... (and pardon the long comment post)<br /><br />I grew up in the 70s in California in a college town with an entrepreneurial spirit - not unlike Berkeley, though more middle of the road politically. We were a run of the mill family - two parents doing the best they could, an older brother and a younger sister (that's me - and yes, always following and copying my brother), a dog and cat and various hamsters and fish. <br /><br />My parents did something I now understand to be radical, but at the time I saw as just another Tuesday-after-dinner-summertime activity. On a different night we might have been playing Monopoly or walking off Mom's meatloaf dinner strolling the neighborhood. On that Tuesday my folks invited us to stand around the ping pong table in the garage and smoke cigarettes with them. I think I was 13 and my brother 15. <br /><br />Neither of my parents smoked – indeed, both parents despise smoking's smell and general yuck factor. But they knew we were soon to encounter smoking among our peer groups, and they reasoned that we should know what we were getting into. They lit up first, and explained that they don’t like smoking, but ultimately it was our decision whether we will smoke or not once we are of age to buy our own cigarettes. They wanted us to know why they don’t smoke themselves, and what it tastes and feels like. My brother and I then lit up, and of course we coughed and exclaimed, “This is nasty!” But then we (all) had some fun with it – doing movie star poses, mysterious foreign accents, and being as cool as we could. As we did this, we all discussed why our lungs felt a burning sensation, why we coughed when we tried to inhale the smoke, and what was behind the “cool” factor. We talked about why our friends might want to smoke, and why so many adults carry on with it. We discussed nicotine and addiction. And half an hour later we shot some hoops and strolled the neighborhood to get the smoke out of our hair. That was that.<br /><br />That Tuesday evening had what I now know was the exact desired effect. Smoking never seemed cool to me. Ironically I did take up smoking in high school and college, but only socially. My cigarettes went stale before I finished a pack. My brother didn’t take it up at all. We both were on many sports teams, and it just didn’t mesh. The act of goofing around with our parents as we tried our first cigarettes completely removed the rebellion and coolness motivations to smoke. After those motivations, what’s left?<br /><br />I’ve told this story many times. It often gets horrified responses, and always engenders a lively discussion. In fact people were so shocked my parents would do this that I began to doubt the memory. So a month ago I was visiting my Dad’s house and asked if I remembered correctly, and why he would do something so radical as to introduce his (underage) kids to smoking. He said, “Yup, that’s exactly what happened. Nope, I don’t remember long discussions with your Mom about whether we should or shouldn’t do it. None of our friends did the same. We just thought it was logical, and we did it. I’ve never thought about it again.” I told him that since I’m a parent now, I understand what a big risk it was. I thanked him for trusting his logic and trusting us too. Then we strolled the neighborhood to walk off my step mom’s beef stew dinner.Pamelanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953392920694352732.post-89165928333035132772009-05-04T18:23:00.000-07:002009-05-04T18:23:00.000-07:00Very nice, thank you.Very nice, thank you.Asteroid Academyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00679883765550778369noreply@blogger.com