“Look dad, I’m just like you!”: What made one dad finally throw his vape away for good

A dad who thought he'd successfully hidden his vaping habit from his six-year-old finally quit after the kid demonstrated his utter failure. According to a viral Reddit post, the young child imitated dad's behavior by using steam from the shower, and that's one less person on the vape train.

Commenters encouraged the OP to stick with it and offered useful advice.

"Look dad, I'm just like you!"

In a post on r/mildlyinfuriating that gained over 36,000 upvotes in a few hours, Redditor u/Rpark888 declared his intention to quit vaping forever after finding out that this young son not only knew, but was already mimicking the behavior.

Like most kids, he wants to be like dad.

"I thought I was slick, careful, discreet," the OP wrote on Thursday. "I thought he didn't know. This morning, my 6 yr old was pretending to 'vape' in the bathroom with his toothbrush with the steam from his shower."

"'Look dad, I'm just like you!' F*CK THAT. I'M DONE DONE."

The issue of underage kids using vaping products like e-cigarettes had been steadily worsening over time before seeing a dip from 2023 to 2024. In January of this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported 2.25 million middle and high school students using tobacco products last year, down from 2.8 million in 2023.

They attributed this drop to a reduction in e-cigarette use among the youth. This is an encouraging sign, but the mirroring behavior of little kids can still prime them for tobacco use in the future. One of the best things parents can do for these kids is quit.

"I'm pretty upset with myself and not realizing how much I was not only destroying my own health, but, also just how much my son knows about my bad habits," the Redditor admitted. "I want to be healthier for myself, for him, and for our family's future."

"Day 1. Let's f*cking go."

How to quit vaping for your kids

Fellow Redditors were thrilled to hear that the OP is quitting, especially for his kid's sake. They offered praise, hype, and best of all, advice on how to stay off the vape.

"Congratulations on Day 1," said u/TruCrimson. "Hope to see an update to reaching Day 30."

"I quit after 12 years and I have no regrets," reported u/PrpleSparklyUnicrn13. "Kids that grow up in a house where a parent smokes are more likely to smoke themselves. You are doing a great job of setting a better example. It’s hard, but worth it."

"Do yourself a favor and crush those cigs," u/johnnytron recommended. "From experience the first time I tried to quit smoking I threw half a pack away. Like 6 hours in I went digging through the trash for those last cigs."

"OP needs to put himself on some nicotine gum and patches to help with managing cravings," u/kinkycarbon added. "Everyone has them and quitting smoking is harder cold turkey."

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