Posted by Dave on 5/20/2009, 10:26 pm, in reply to "Busted by son"
68.11.149.9
Perhaps he felt betrayed because you'd never told him you smoke, but it's sad to think that a kid would have learned to "hate" anyone simply because the person is a smoker. Sad--but not surprising, I guess, given the current social climate. Yet even assuming that smoking really is deadly at any level, utterly unjustifiable, and indicative of personal weakness, it's hard to understand just how smokers have become the personification of pure evil for so many.
Dave
--Previous Message--
: A couple of nights ago, when I was giving my
: 11-yo son a good-night kiss in his bed, he
: asked me if he could talk to me about
: something. I said of course. For a couple of
: minutes he said nothing. I could see he was
: struggling with something very upsetting to
: him. Finally he asked, "do you
: smoke?"
:
: My first impulse was to deny it -- to
: protect both him and myself. But there was
: something about the way he asked -- so
: courageous in the face of his evident
: anxiety -- that compelled me to tell him the
: truth. (I've been smoking on and off for the
: past 37 years, averaging perhaps 3 cigs per
: day.) The next words out of his mouth were,
: "I hate you." He had never spoken
: those words before, even as a toddler.
:
: Then we talked about it, and I think I
: handled it pretty well. I was floored when
: he told me that he'd suspected/known for a
: year. And here I thought I was being so
: careful! By the end of the conversation he
: told me he didn't hate me anymore, and we
: hugged each other good-night. He's such a
: delightful, bright, funny, sensitive kid,
: he's made me seriously think about quitting.
: But not today...
:
: F.
:
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