Would you advise your children to smoke a pipe?

[jvnshr]

It is said that in medieval times noble families ordered artisans to make pipes for their baby boys on the day they were born. After the pipe was ready, it was given to a captain sailor to smoke it for 18 years. It was believed that a pipe became dry and mature in those 18 years (I hope those sailors took good care of pipes). And when the kid celebrated his 18th year of birth pipe was given to him as a gift.
I don't ask if you are going to provoke your kid to smoke. I just would like to know opinions if one day my daughter/son comes and says (of course when he/she is in his/her legal age) "dad, I would like to learn pipe smoking". What should I do? What will you do? Although I know that there are some people who learned pipe smoking from their fathers/uncles/grandfathers/aunts, has ever someone taught their own children how to smoke a pipe?

 

[beerandbaccy]

A tricky one!
I only have a daughter so the odds are against this problem arising. I still might have another kid so you never know! If they were young but of legal age I wouldn't feel I should help them, but if i had a son who in his 30s wanted to take the pipe up I would certainly sit and enjoy a pipe with him and pass on any knowledge I may or may not have.
I just wouldn't want to encourage a habit that might lead to cigarette smoking. I feel this is far more likely at 18-25 say than 30+
I have no evidence, it's just my feeling on the subject.

 

[perlasca]

I'd be interested in this article about Medieval families. I was under the impression the first pipes in Europe were made of clay, and not until the 16th Century.

 

[seagullplayer]

My youngest son (age 25) took up smoking cigarettes when he left home for army life.
He was married a year ago and they came in for Christmas.
I allowed him to pick a pipe from my small collection and set him up with a couple of

tobacco samples. He was impressed with the cost savings over his current habit.

I tried to stress this as a "safer alternative".
But he said pipe tobacco was hard to come by during deployment. He will be back

state side soon, I hope he picks his pipe back up, and I hope this will be his last

deployment.
My oldest son shows no interest in smoking, and I am very happy with that.
I almost never smoked a pipe or cigar when the boys lived at home. I only picked

the pipe back up a couple of years ago. I have never smoked the first cigarette.

I do not have an addiction I like collecting a few pipes and trying a couple blends,

but I can go weeks between bowls. I hope my youngest can some day get to that point.

 

[jvnshr]

@beerandbaccy I see
@perlasca I am sorry, my bad, I read it somewhere a long long time ago, even before I started any kind of smoking, it started like "in the past noble families...", as middle ages lasted from 5th to 15th century and tobacco introduced to Europe after 1492, I must be wrong.
@seagullplayer I hope he will return safely back to his country, I am also going to be a father in the very near future, and I was thinking about that (smoking at home). I actually have a free room to keep my tobacco, lighters, etc. but still I think I am going to quit smoking at home.

 

[radio807]

Both of my sons are smokers: one smokes cigars and the other a pipe. My only "encouragement" was the example I set by being a pipe smoker myself. After they made their decisions, I participate in their tobacco hobbies, and they do mine.
BTW, I have never represented pipe or cigar smoking as "safer" alternatives to cigarette smoking. That seems silly to me. Saying that something is safer implies that whatever you're comparing it to is safe. Cigarette smoking is not safe, it's harmful. I believe that a better statement is that pipe smoking is less harmful than cigarette smoking.

 

[sjfine]

I tried to get my step daughter to give up cigarettes in favor of a pipe. I gave her my psychedelic cob, a hardwood, and some aros, but she thought it was uncool. I told her that I knew better, that she would be the coolest chick at the pool hall, but she disagreed. Stubborn. Takes after her mother.

 

[thnaks]

In theory, yes I would. I consider pipes (not inhaled) a luxury, a sensory experience, but not a vice. I want my son to experience the joys and beauties of this human life, in moderation and without harming others of course.
That said, the reason I was planning on waiting till he went off to college to learn to smoke was because he hates the idea of any kind of tobacco smoke getting added to our household. He thinks me smoking a pipe is "sooooo embarrassing!" and wants to make sure his friends don't know.

 

[newbroom]

I do not have an addiction I like collecting a few pipes and trying a couple blends,

but I can go weeks between bowls. I hope my youngest can some day get to that point.

First sign is denial. :rofl:

Seriously, though. Your son smokes cigarettes. He's got an addiction. By the way, so do I, but I've changed my delivery system to one that offers me much more overall enjoyment and (I keep telling myself) is much(!) less harmful.

I'm happy for you for your being "addiction free".

 

[jvnshr]

@sjfine your avatar just completes the phrase "Stubborn. Takes after her mother." :rofl:

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I like the smoking walrus, and yeh, goes perfect with the phrase.
My oldest daughter started sneaking around with cigarettes a few years ago, so I bought an ebay pipe and customized it for her with Tsuge style flowers and her birthstone set in the shank. Thankfully, she took to my huge supply of Hobbit Weed, which I had bought before I knew any better. Blech. She only ever smoked when I was in the livingroom with my last pipe of the day. She used it as an excuse to stay up late. But, now she is all moved out. Her pipe is on a stand next to my chair. When she and her friends come over for dinners and to hang out for some picking and grinning, she'll join me in a pipe. As far as I know, she never went further with cigarettes, thank God. But, she leaves the pipe with me, as something we share. After dinner smokes, heart to heart discussions. She is sort of a trend setter in her own style, but she doesn't smoke her pipe with her boyfriend or at her home or with her friends. It's just a nice thing that we share when she comes home to Papa Cosmic. ::

 

[phred]

I only have cats, and their lack of thumbs makes it difficult for them to operate a Zippo. Thank the Gods... :mrgreen:

 

[warren]

No. I advised my child to spend money wisely not to burn it up.

 

[pappymac]

I have two sons and they took up cigars when I was smoking them in the early 2000s. The younger son switched to pipes in 2010 and re-introduced me to pipe smoking so now all three of us are pipe smokers.

 

[mso489]

Probably not. If they took it up on their own, I'd counsel moderation. We advocate by example, so smoking a pipe yourself is a recommendation regardless of what you say.

 

[brass]

I try to teach my son moderation. He smoked his first cigar, to my knowledge, at a Gonzaga College Highschool alumni smoker in D.C. Now in his later twenty years, he smokes with me occasionally at the smokers I hold in my home. He has tried the pipe but it is tough to teach when the student smokes only every couple of months or so. Pax

 

[shutterbugg]

I would never advise any minor to smoke anything, it's illegal. I always smoked only cigars or pipe but my kid took up cigarettes anyway. Basically whatever you want or don't want your kids to do they're going to do just the opposite.

 

[foolwiththefez]

I would want to share my pleasures with my children. I recently shared my hobby with my own father and he regrets not saving his own father's pipes for us to share together.
I would no more encourage my children to smoke cigarettes than I would encourage them to become alcoholics. But I will certainly give them use of my pipes and teach them to smoke when age appropriate in the same way I will try to share my love of craft beers.

 

[fitzy]

When my son turns 18 in 3 years I would like to buy him a birth year Dunhill but I don't plan on encouraging him to smoke. I don't want him smoking cigarettes but pipes or cigars are acceptable in moderation.

 

[aggravatedfarmer]

Better than chew and cigs.