Monday, 2 January 2017

Smoking around 13 yo


Hi parenting!Our 13 yo daughter has become part of a garage band. They play in the garage belonging to a pair of 17 yo twin boys (well, their parents garage). There are two more band members, a 16 yo who is also our daughter's bf and another 17 yo boy. Our daughter started singing in this band about a month ago so it is all relatively new. We have picked her up a few times and every time we been there the garage has smelled of smoke and also sometimes weed. There are opened beer bottles and the boys don't hide the fact that they are drinking them. According to daughter other friends frequently hang out in this garage as well and listen to them practice and or play video games. (The garage has an old couch and tv in it as well as all the band gear and heating.)The boys are nice enough. Their parents seem to be normal working parents on the far lenient side of parenting. When our daughter started with this band she came home really late (around 11 pm - 1 am on school nights) and was difficult to get out of bed in the mornings, so we talked to her about not coming home too late on school days because she needs sleep to grow and not be so tired in the mornings. She decided to set her own guideline of 9:30 pm so she can be in bed by 10 pm. It isn't a strict curfew and she can choose to stay a little later when she feels like it, but she follows it quite well so we are happy with the outcome and she seems to be as well.Regarding the drinking, we asked her what she thinks of it and she said she doesn't mind them drinking, they don't drink every day and not that much, and she isn't keen on it herself but sometimes she tries a sip to see what it tastes like. We talked to her about alcohol and asked her to set her own guideline for alcohol as well (whatever she chooses, we want her to have thought about her choices beforehand and not impulsively decide to drink one day without thinking it through). She said that while she is 13 she won't have anymore than at most one drink (and never hard liqour) and that this might be for a special occasion or when she is in the mood, but not a regular thing. We told her we prefer she wouldn't drink at all but we are happy with this guideline and expect her to stick to it.Then we talked to her about the smoking. She says she doesn't smoke, but she has tried smoking twice, and doesn't want to do it again. She says she is bothered by the heavy smoke in the garage and would prefer they didn't smoke, but she feels she can't tell them not to as it is their garage. She doesn't even want to ask them not to because she doesn't want to ruin the atmosphere (her own words). This garage btw seems to be the 'cool' hang-out where kids can smoke and drink and chill, and understandably she doesn't want to be the one to ruin the fun. We asked her if she would like us to talk to them/ their parents and say she isn't allowed to be there unless they quit smoking in there so she doesn't have to be the one to take the heat for it, but she said no, they might do it anyway and then she will be in an awkward position.The past days during Christmas break she has been hanging out there and come home smelling of smoke/ weed every day. We don't think she is smoking and she is in her perfectly normal behavior when she comes home. If we comment on her smell she says "yeah, can't help it". We talked about second-hand smoke and she knows the dangers, and she also knows her grandparent has smoking-related cancer.To come to the question, we don't know if we should step in as parents and say no smoking or she can't hang out there, or if we should let it go and accept her coming home smelling of smoke. She probably goes there for a couple of hours 3-5 days a week. Any ideas on how to handle this situation is welcome! via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2i4rzGn

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