How do i get my stepdad to stop smoking?
February 23rd, 2011
He’s my stepdad but i call him dad because he’s more of a father to me than my biological dad was. Every morning i hear him cough like crazy and my mom always teasingly says “another cigarette dear”? He’s been smoking since before they got married and they’ve been married for almost 7 years now. I don’t want him to die prematurely because of this please help! I’ve talked to my mom about it and she says that he’ll quit when he’s ready but when will that be? Hopefully soon! I’m really worried about him please help! Thanks!
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The only thing you can do is talk to your stepfather about your concerns. Now that may give him motivation but your mom is right in that he will quit when he’s ready. If he’s not ready, it won’t happen. Smoking is very addictive and just like with drug addiction, you can’t stop unless you yourself want to.
you should get him to realize how harmful it is…a nd what are the consequences for his reaction to smoking and if that doesn’t work you should try to help hiim stop buying them….
my dad is the same way…coughing and hacking every morning to the point that it wakes me up HOURS before i even have to get up. and it’s consistent all throughout the day. both of my parents used to smoke…even my brother (age 19) started smoking because of them. however, my mom stopped smoking because i broke down in front of her and let her know that i don’t want her to die from lung cancer or something horrible like that.
my dad knows (because of the many years i’ve discouraged his smoking) that it really upsets me when he lights up another one. when new years came around this year, he promised that by January 1st, 2010, he will have quit smoking. it’s a while till then so he hasn’t made much progress…but i know he’ll do it eventually.
the point is, i guess, that the only thing you can do is just talk to him about it and really, really let him know how you feel. he probably knows all the facts, and that it is killing him, but he isn’t quite ready to stop. you could ask him to slowly cut down on the cigarettes and even set a reasonable goal to stop alltogether…like my dad is going to.
i hope this helps. (:
Your mom is right. If he wanted to, he would have done so by now. He just doesn’t want to. Nothing you do or say will change that. All you will do by bringing it up is cause him to smoke more. Is that what you want?
My grandparents are 87 and 83 and have been smoking for over 60 years, with no signs of quitting. They are healthier than most non smokers in their 50′s.
You just need to stop worrying about it. Stressing about it is more damaging to you, then smoking is to him.
You can’t. He knows it not good for him. But he must be willing to give it up.
IF your mother don’t like it either, set some ground rules like no smoking in the house, or in these rooms.
Unfortunately, you can’t stop someone from smoking unless they want to and if you do a little research you will find that cigarette smoking is as addictive as heroin.
Think about any bad habits you may have. Can anyone “stop” you from doing the things you like. In fact, if someone tells you to stop, it may make you want to rebel even more.
The best thing you can do is accept that your step father is a smoker. The “cough” means that he has been smoking for many years and that cough is the huge amount of phlegm that builds up, usually over night while he is asleep. Maybe if there is a way you can contact someone in a laboratory with a smoker’s lung or liver in a jar. Maybe if he sees that, it might scare him into stopping for good. Otherwise, he can’t see the negative effects. So he will continue until he gets too sick to do anything about it.
Hopefully, he has his own space where he can smoke or smokes outside of the house because second and third hand smoke is even worse. No need for you or your Mom to get cancer and other illnesses because he is smoking.
It’s pretty hard to convince another person to stop smoking. the nicotine drug is so addicitng, in order to quit, the smoker has to be totally motivated for themselves.
It’s like th old saying, you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make him drink.
I would be gentle, but clear with your step dad that you would love to see him stop smoking. give him some good reasons, but don’t become preachy. Smokers become resentful of excessive pushing.
You can also get more info at the blog below:
http://stop–smoking-programs.blogspot.com/