What Parents Can Do:

• Set a good example by not using tobacco and give clear, consistent messages about the dangers of tobacco to your children.
• Provide your children with a tobacco-free environment at home.
• Support coordinated school health programs and insist that they include tobacco-use prevention education.
• If your children already use tobacco:
  • Help them set realistic goals for stopping.
  • Give them positive reinforcement and encouragement.
  • Help them understand the underlying reasons they’re using tobacco (to deal with stress, to feel accepted, to show their independence, etc.).
  • Help them substitute positive alternatives such as physical activity or stress management.
  • Help your children critically analyze messages that glamorize tobacco use on television, in movies, and in magazines and other print media.
• Join a school health committee and guide policies to prevent tobacco use.
• Volunteer to help school staff implement tobacco-use prevention activities.
• Work with the school board to provide assistance programs, rather than punishment, for students who violate tobacco-use policies.
• Share tobacco-use prevention information with your children and talk with them about related homework assignments and projects.