Do you smoke?

It's interesting how many of us here explain our aversion to smoking because we grew up with parents who smoked. I'm in that category, too.
Past research suggested that growing up in a household of smokers made us more likely to start smoking.
I wonder if that is no longer true?

I smoked through my teens, but as soon as the mortgage appeared I stopped.

i was widowed last year after 56 years, of an evening i like to have a glass of wine and a cigarette whilst watching Corrie, I have lived in my home over 20 years, it is a semi and 2 years ago a young couple bought nest door, I have never seen them or really had any contact, i am old they are young, we all keep ourselves to ourselves, 2 days ago they sent me a text to ask if i could smoke in a different room in my house , I was so shocked, how entitled are they, my settee , my television etc are in that room, I am not harming anyone and it relieves the lonliness to have a little smoke, I never play loud music or bang around I am as quiet as a mouse. like i said I was deeply shocked that the younger generation feel they can tell people what to do in their own homes

I grew up around smokers, and sorry to offend, but I think it is a dirty, filthy,disgusting habit. I have never smoked. It makes me feel sick.
I used to work in a place that had a smokers room, it smelt and the ceiling was like brown tar. I used to go out everyday to eat as the thought of it makes me nauseas.
I am not a misery, I like a drink now and again, and make sure that I do not smell of alcohol, unlike smokers.

jakuss I am anti smoking, but their entitlement is of the scale. It really is not their business, please ignore. Honestly for a young couple they should have better things to do.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

I’ve never smoked, my mother and both my sisters did but fortunately the smell makes me gag, I’m glad I never started as I know I’d be one of those who would really struggle to stop, I admire anyone with the will power to give up. The cost would have me in tears how do people afford them

Oh dear jakuss. I guess the smell is seeping through the adjoining wall.

I can see why they would find it horrid but also why you feel you should be able to do what you want in your own house.

No solution to this one except for them to move on as quickly as they can🙁

Never smoked.
But I wonder if the several very judgemental comments were made by people who don't drink and are within NHS BMI?
Addiction isn't a choice!
Why otherwise would large corporations spend millions and millions on sponsorship advertising?
Or why, marketing companies moved wholesale from tobacco companies to processed food companies after the smoking bans were started in the West.
Knowing what they do, tobacco companies now target people in less developed countries.
That is the power and ethics of large companies. So if some people's inate willpower cannot beat their psychological tricks, that is hardly the smokers, alcoholics or overweight people's fault.

jakuss
I would imagine that your smoke is somehow going through the wall into their house so, if it is, I can imagine it is probably rather unpleasant for them. However what an awful way to go about dealing with it. Firstly I don’t think they can be very nice people if they have made no effort to introduce themselves to their lonely, elderly neighbour and, secondly, a visit to explain to you face to face what the problem is and to ask you if there is anything you and they could do between you to improve the situation would have been much better and more polite. I can understand why you are upset.

I also enjoy a cigarette. Smoke about 6 or 7 a day. I am 78 and on my own. So I figure it's a bit late for me to worry about it now.

I didn't say addiction itself was a choice - but every addiction does begin with a choice. I guess not every smoker would describe themselves as an addict - but they chose to light that first cigarette. Similarly, not everyone who drinks alcohol becomes addicted to it - but at some point, they chose to have that first drink.
Food addiction is somewhat different though, as we all need to eat to live. No-one needs to smoke or drink alcohol in order to live.

Ziplok

I’ve never smoked. I never wanted to. Perhaps it was something to do with growing up around heavy smokers (Dad, Grandad and 2 brothers). It used to drive my Mum mad, she was constantly opening windows and lighting candles to try to get rid of / disguise the smell. Our sitting room used to look like a blue, foggy haze, every day and the smoke meant redecorating was a regular necessity.

The smoke used to make my eyes water and my throat close up. It certainly didn’t encourage me to want to try it.

Actually, my Dad gave up smoking after my wedding. He just stopped and never smoked again, went cold turkey.

Ironically, it was Mum who ended up with cancer of the throat - I’m convinced being surrounded by cigarette, cigar and pipe smoke all her life played a part in her getting it. She’d never smoked one herself but was a victim of passive smoking I believe.

Yes, my non-smoking grandmother on my dad's side had chronic emphysema for years - it must have been passive smoking for her. I have always had asthma and, as a child, a cold always went to my chest causing infections and bronchitis. My dad stopped smoking in the house when I was eighteen and the colds l caught later were generally straightforward without affecting my chest too much. Passive smoking again. Had my dad, who was the most considerate of men, realised that his smoking was exacerbating the asthma, he would have gone outside to smoke years before. However, passive smoking was not really known about in the seventies.

I still enjoy a cigarette. I'm 78 and now think "What the heck".

Sadgrandma

jakuss
I would imagine that your smoke is somehow going through the wall into their house so, if it is, I can imagine it is probably rather unpleasant for them. However what an awful way to go about dealing with it. Firstly I don’t think they can be very nice people if they have made no effort to introduce themselves to their lonely, elderly neighbour and, secondly, a visit to explain to you face to face what the problem is and to ask you if there is anything you and they could do between you to improve the situation would have been much better and more polite. I can understand why you are upset.

Blimey , is cigarette smoke " seeping through a wall" an actual thing , then ?
My head tells me that Sadgrandma's analysis and peace negotiation suggestion is the right one.
My heart feels your outrage, jakuss.So they're going to tell you which room in your own house you can sit in?
My blood is quietly boiling for you.
Have you got a friend you can talk this over with? People are always banging on about " support" these days but this is a situation where I feel you need it and hope you get it.
Citizen's Advice Bureau ? could they help you with your civic duties / legal rights etc.
Good Luck

@jakuss, you will have gathered that I am not a fan of smoking, but how dare someone tell you what to do in your own home. I would be very surprised if the smell of smoke was seeping through the wall of an adjoining house. In this case, it is not the smoker who is behaving in an antisocial manner but the extremely entitled next door neighbours.

When my late inlaws had smokers living next door to them, you could definitely smell it.

jackuss as you don’t really know them, how do they have your number to txt?

I smoked from age 13 till I was trying for a baby in my 20s. It was really hard to give up and I vowed never to start again. Unfortunately in my mid 40s while going through a difficult time in my life, I started smoking again, at first just a couple a day but it soon escalated to 20 then 30. DH, who had never smoked when he met me, followed me exactly. I never understood that, especially when he admitted he had never really enjoyed them!

Two years ago (almost to the day) I was diagnosed with oral cancer. I stopped immediately with the help of e-cigs, as did DH. We are still using them - and yes, we know the safety is as yet unknown - but my cancer specialist was supportive. We have reduced the nicotine content to 30% of what we started on, with the aim of stopping completely asap.

Within weeks we noticed the smell in our home improving, and our DD (who has a very strong sense of smell) remarked after a few months that it no longer smelt at all. We also noticed that after redecorating a couple of rooms they stayed looking clean and fresh!

How did we afford to smoke? Well we simply didn't do a lot of things that other people did, such as new cars, foreign holidays, classy furniture, clothes, and no cleaner or gardener. Even so, it is a very expensive habit and does you no good at all!

I also find that rather than reaching for the fags as soon as I get up in a morning has now got me finding that it is a good hour later before I realise that I haven't had a puff.

And my cancer specialist has just told me my cancer is gone!

I've never smoked neither did my parents or sister. My aunt chain smoked and eventually died from cancer, her sons dont smoke. Both my AC smoked when in their teens, the eldest stopped when she became pregnant and never restarted , the youngest now vapes. When younger I worked in a lab snd saw the lungs ( in a jar) of someone who had smoked---really awful !

1990 was my last cigarette

And my cancer specialist has just told me my cancer is gone!

Excellent news for you, Madmeg.

I didn't say upstream, but my ex-smoker OH was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2023, very early on, had that segment of his lung removed, followed by a year of treatment and is now disease free.

Had my last cigarette on 8 August 1989. Was a fifty-a-day girl before that 😯.

Used to smoke loads of rolls up and gave up 22 years ago. Love smoking and I was very addicted.But I was losing my teeth due to having a gum disease through smoking.

I gave up after smoking for 30 years.

One of the best decisions l ever made.

Toodle a loo.

🚬👎🌻😻

X

I gave up years ago, cold Turkey before patches and all the help and support available today, hardest thing I have ever done in my life! Dh was a casual smoker and gave up very easily at the same time.nnI used to feel so sorry for the lovely district nurse that used to visit dh, her call before us was to a patient where both he and his wife smoked, and she used to reek of it!!! She was full of profuse apologies and used her lunch break to go home, shower and change her uniform!!! It’s everyone’s right to choose whether to smoke or not, but it’s the effect on others I really object to!