So you find out your 18 year old first year college student smokes cigarettes?

I smoke. So I won't tell him/her not to do something that I do. But I would at least tell him/her about my own experience. I started this in an early age. Then I could never stop it (even though I wanted to stop it and tried a few times). That's their decision to do what they do. But I would recommend him/her to do what's good and keep away from what's bad.

Yes you definitely care! You sit down and talk to them as a parent and not as a friend as most parents do and have a serious heart to heart with your child about smoking both cigarettes and especially about smoking pot and let them know it is not acceptable to you and most teenagers will listen, guidance is usually what they are looking for and if you say nothing then they assume it is ok with you.

I wouldn't say anything. 18 year olds can do as they please, they're legal now.

I would rather they smoke cigarettes than pot, or drink and drive, or go on a shooting spree, or dealing drugs, or pimping girls, or robbing banks.

Life has so many opportunities to offer the little ones now days, don't it? Cigarettes aren't so bad when you stop and look at ALL of the worse things they could be doing.

Yes you care. But more then anger at the sheer stupidity of doing something so unhealthy and just plain icky, I'd be just sorely disappointed. At 18 it's legal to buy tobacco, so legally? Well, I just found out that my 22 year old son started smoking, and honestly I look at him with a different opinion. I expect people to experiment with drugs or booze but to start something as addictive as smoking when he's been taught his whole life how bad it is? Then when he leaves to go somewhere and I go to hug him I am honestly repulsed by the smell. It makes me really really sad.

The kid is full grown. If the "child" (because if they are stupid enough to drink underage AND smoke pot, they definately aren't an adult yet) chooses to act inappropriately, that is their decision and they will have to live with the consequences.

On the other hand, if that idiot was my kid, and I was paying a dime for their college, room or board... I'd cut off their support in a heartbeat. Let them use their drug, booze and cig money for college and food.

Well, what can a parent say? Of course your parents love you, and they're concerned about your health. Otherwise, they wouldn't care what you do. You're an adult, and you have to make your decisions based on what you know. You know it's unhealthy. You know it's not attractive. You know it smells bad. But if you still want to smoke, it's your decision. Certainly a first year college student knows enough to understand that. You're educated enough to know you are putting your own life at risk...

you say "oh my I see you're picking up some bad habits that will be hard to stop "and then you go about your day.people sometimes have a need to see for themselves.parents just try to cut out the bull for you by letting you know the consequences of your action before you indulge,usually because they have experienced these things in some form.but in the end the child usually wants to do all the things they couldn't do when under the parents care.there are real good reasons that parents try to guide their kids and those reasons usually are they know more and have lived longer, there is no way that children who have lived shorter lives and been sheltered and loved by a parent know what awaits them in this world and it seems that they always want to do the worst of things, i know i did when i was young.

I would try to get them to quit and let them know the risks of smoking. I smoke and i've tried to quit many of times but its hard. I wish and hope someday i will. My dad has smoked for years and has tried to quit many of times. But at 18 your an adult and you can make your own choices and hopefully you'll make the right choice.

I would be so angry considering we all know the health effects of smoking. I'd tell my son he was a dummy, he would never be allowed to smoke in my house or in my presence. He'd know I hated it, but he's an adult, so I wouldn't spend much time bitching.

Please just quit. Not only is it unhealthy, but it really stinks. I know I'm an X. If you get the chance to see the Science Muesums "Body Works", it will help show what exactly smoking does to the body. My Mother now has chronic lung disease, she can not walk very far on her own. You can stop now and reverse any damage you've done. Please quit.