I dunno.
Sometimes I wonder how much influence we as parents actually have.
My parents smoked like chimneys around me. Neither my brothers nor I smoke.
(And yes, my youngest brother has occasional respiratory difficulties which we attribute to being the youngest and the one in the house the longest when our parents did their 3 pack a day thing.)
And I
thought I had indoctrinated by *own* kids against smoking. I do not care for the tobacco habit
at all.
But my older son smokes. It's more a club thing, he knows better than to smoke in our house, let alone in front of me. But we know he smokes.
Must be the French influence. And perhaps the oral fixations in his genes.
He tells me it's a phase and that he'll quit. My parents tried to quit three times. They both died young.
Not sure what message I am trying to impart here.
I think this amendment is worth voting for: I think that no matter how much we think we are impervious to advertisement, it does effect us.
And parents: don't be too sure that your role modeling will influence your child. Ours did in terms of instilling morals and values, art and literature, and nutritious diet--but not in terms of one of my *biggest* pet peeves! ;-)