To what extent is your use of tobacco, alcohol or drugs similar to that of your parents?

I smoke when I feel like it. Mom was a smoker.
Both were alcoholics, but I rarely drink unless it’s an ‘occasion’. Since we have many alcoholics in the family, I’m very leery of indulging.
Marijuana (medicinal) is legal here, and both my parents used it, dad still does. He just recently took it up at 75 years old. :)

It’s similar in that both enjoyed drinking and partying in high school and college and did it far less by the time they were in their late 20s/early 30s, a pattern I have followed almost exactly. My dad smoked weed occasionally in college; I have tried it and smoked at a hookah bar a couple times. I never made a habit of it. My mom’s father chain-smoked through her childhood and her grandmother died of emphysema and that put her off smoking for life.

My dad is into home-brewing and enjoys a beer every now and then; my mom essentially no longer drinks at all, and I don’t do anything other than drink occasionally with friends (and yes, sometimes to the point of getting quite drunk, though that happens no more than once a year these days).

My father smoked from the time he was 20 (picked it up in the Navy during the War) until he quit at age 45 when his boss got cancer.

I smoked from age 17 until age 33. When I quit cold turkey I was smokiing two packs of Marlboro Reds a day.

My parents had a highball about every evening, and wine with dinner. But I never saw my parents really drunk. My dad’s father was an alcoholic; my dad would go into the bars in North Holywood to bring him home for dinner.

I am a recovering alcoholic, and have been sober since age 30.

@zenvelo Congratulations on your sobriety, that’s huge :)

Both of my grandfathers were hard drunks. Both smoked.
My father was a very social drinker, and he smoked until his 40th birthday. My mother never drank, and only smoked as a teen.
I rarely drink, and I smoked only a few cigars or cigarettes in my life. How little do I drink? I am on a free alcohol cruise, and I think I have had 3 White Russians over 10 days.

It’s quite similar. None of us smoke. My parents drink somewhat regularly (probably a few times a week, but small amounts). They drink in a very controlled manner and I’ve never seen them get drunk. I drink a glass of white wine or champagne about once a year.

Not at all.

Dad was a social drinker but smoked quite a bit of pot and tried cocaine a few times.

Mom didn’t drink but was a 2–3 pack-a-day chain smoker.

My aunt, uncle, and three cousins were all alcoholics and drug addicts (heroine, cocaine).

I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs at all.

Not at all similar. I don’t smoke, drink, or use any other drugs. My mother smoked for a long time, both of my parents drink, and they’ve both dabbled in marijuana and psychedelics.

No influence. I make my own decisions based on me.

A lot of people smoked cigarettes and weed and drank around me. This was the Pacific Northwest in the 90s so think flannel shirts and long hair lol.

We would hike to the top of a trail with a waterfall and smoke weed and drink beers that we stole from Safeway haha.

It wasn’t all fun and free, though. Many friends got into hard stuff like meth and heroin and I’m glad I moved away.

I drink alcohol 2 to 4 times a week though, and I miss smoking weed a lot.

@Blackberry Is it not legal in your area yet or ?

@KNOWITALL
It is, I just took a break for work. Once I got out of the Navy in 2014 I smoked almost every day, though haha.

Absolutely the opposite. They smoked and drank. I never touch it.

@gondwanalon I told my mom she was a great example of what not to do, regarding alcohol. Maybe some of us do the opposite because we saw so much damage.

@Blackberry Makes sense, it’s fairly mainstream now even here. My dad and his pals are about as square as it gets, it’s funny to me.

Opposite for me too, but the other opposite.

My parents and whole extended family were clean-living, seriously religious, nonsmoking, nondrugging teetotalers. I started my smoking and underage drinking in college and got into pot as soon as I had the chance. Tried a few other things too, along the way.

I married a man who did all the above, and much more of it than I did. It wasn’t a problem for me, but it was for him. So after he got sober, there I was once again living with a nondrugging nondrinker who couldn’t even have a glass of champagne with me on New Year’s Eve. And not even for religious reasons. Taste of irony there.

Of course I was glad he was sober, because before that it got pretty awful, but still. He made 39+ years in AA without a slip. I was grateful for that, but it wasn’t the lifestyle I bargained for. I’d have liked a glass of wine in the evening with my husband from time to time.

I did quit smoking when my kids were small, but he waited until he was dying of COPD just a few years ago.

Now I have maybe a half dozen glasses of wine a year and don’t smoke anything. I guess without meaning to I ended up pretty much like them after all.

Except for the church part. Not bending on that.

My dad smoked a good portion of my childhood. My mother never smoked.

During my childhood my dad had a drink at parties and on vacation, and once in a while wine in the evening, but it was all few and far between. My mom never drank. She would taste a drink, but never had a drink for herself.

My dad started drinking wine regularly in the evening once that idiotic report came out that wine is good for you if you have heart disease. I was already an adult. After many years of this, he recently stopped drinking when he had a liver scare. I don’t know if he went back to it, I really really hope not.

I say I don’t drink. I’ve been drunk only a few times in my life. Once in a blue moon I’ll have a little alcohol for one reason or another, but it’s like twice a year maybe, a few sips, and I can go years not tasting alcohol at all.

I smoked a few times when I was a kid, never inhaled, never was a habit or a regular thing. I haven’t “smoked” a cigarette since I was a teenager just kind of faking it as I described.

I never did drugs at all. Never smoked pot, or took pills, nothing.

My parents did not drink much at all. Dad smoked like a chimney and I had a pack a day habit for like four years. Dad tried so many times to quit. He gave up. It took me a couple tries but I did it cold turkey and have stayed off them for like 20 years now. After a year or so dad realized that if I could he could to and he has been off them for almost as long.

A few nights a week I’ll have a beer, sometimes two. I’m dieting right now to lose a little weight so no beer for me. I don’t miss it so I may just give it up.

@Blackwater_Park Vodka is the diet liquor. Ha!

None of us are or have ever been smokers, drinkers, or druggies.

My father was a heavy drinker, but not an alcoholic. I barely drink at all, my sister did alot of college binge drinking, but not so much since.

My mother was never much of a drinker.

My sister smoked, but kicked the habit (after a few failed attempts) despite neither parent smoking.

So I’m not sure my family really transmitted any tendencies through the generations. But I know some families do.

My parents never smoked and only drank a little when social settings dictated it. Before they started printing “best by” dates on everything my parents had the same can of beer in the refrigerator reserved “for company” for at least 10 years.

I never smoked but do drink a little socially on average about 3–5 glasses of sweet wine per week. Like my parents I don’t drink beer at all. It is too filling; it does not taste good; and it gives me the urge to pee at inconvenient times.

TLDR. The same.

The parents never did drugs (that I know of) and I did for a while. Mom smoked for years and years. I smoked for a few years and then gave it up…closer to my dad on this one. He also smoked for a few years and then gave it up. Mom and Dad had the occasional beer and I have them more often. Mom, later in life, discovered hard liquor and enjoyed brown liquor as the drink of choice. Not all the time, but when she had one that was it. I’ve never been much of a booze kinda guy though I do like tequila on occasion. None of us was big into wine.

My parents were both chain smokers since their teens. They were the first of all their siblings and cousins to die. Neither ever drank alcohol, but lots of coffee.
I never took up smoking, but I did drink lots of coffee, but recently tapered off to one 8oz cup a day.
. I like wine, but limited to three or four glasses a week until my doctor put me on a low carb diet, now only one or two glasses a week.

@KNOWITALL My Mom married 3 alcoholic men when I was between 7 to 11 years old. My life was pandemonium and madness. Nothing made sense but thankfully I learned the relationship of cause and effect at an early age.

@gondwanalon Makes sense. Sorry you had to go thru that, too.

Same. They didn’t smoke and barely drank alcohol. Same with me.

That reminds me of a family story. Totally true:
In the Sixties, my Dad was seeing a lot of news discussing joints. He called to my sister “What’s a joint?”
She replied “About $10.”

^^^^ @filmfann way over priced. A lid was $10 up until the mid 70s.

My thoughts exactly @zenvelo. A nickel bag was $5 which is where it got the name.

My dad smoked for about 30 years, as did I; my mom never did. His father was the kind of drunk that they’d have to look for on Christmas Day and find him down at the railroad tracks. He remembers doing that at a pretty young age. Sad.

Both of them had a drink or two before dinner every evening. I drank excessively for 30 years, finally quit when I was drinking a quart of vodka a day for several years – 18 years ago.

They weren’t of a generation that used drugs. I was, and enjoyed them in massive varieties, quantities, and qualities from ages 17 to 30. I still have a gummy now and then.

Yes, I believe they influenced me. As a child, I think I unknowingly absorbed that “blah parents + alcohol = parents in a better mood”. This was in the 60’s and 70’s, and we had many university functions that were called “cocktail parties”. Everyone was dressed up and pretty and happy and either I walked around serving hors d’oeuvres or a catering company would. Either dad or a bartender served drinks.

I was an unhappy, very insecure child who wet the bed til I was 12, and had either a night terror or a nightmare almost every night. I also walked and talked in my sleep. So I think there were some psychological issues going on even before I began using anything. Add to that, seeing my parents become a little happier after a couple of drinks and I think I ‘learned’ that alcohol made you feel better. Not a far progression to drugs.

My pops was a moderately-heavy drinker, in that he could routinely put away most of a bottle of wine, have a meal, then liqueur. He didn’t smoke or anything else to my knowledge, so I’m a little more open minded than him, but I think we share that no one notices how much we do because we don’t cause a scene. Then the fluctuating from healthy to unhealthy lifestyle, we both do that in general.

I observed so much damage in families that alcohol and smoking caused that I stayed away from that.
Father was a Professional Boxer who had to stay clean most of his single life and when he got older and married with children he rebelled out by indulging in all of the things that he could not do when in his Boxing Career.
( He smoked and drank heavily, to the detriment of his health..he passed away with conditions that HE himself caused.( preventable).

Mother was the total opposite, no drinking unless cajoled by my father and never smoked.

My late mother having lived with a person who CHOSE to ruin all happiness in our family made it was a very difficult marriage of which was somewhat like a parent and petulant child relationship,with mother representing the Parent and Dad the rebelling child.

It’s about the same for all three of the substances; none.

Most of my parent’s drinking occurred at home when my aunt and uncle came round on a Sunday evening. They were relaxed, happy occasions and no one got very drunk, though it didn’t take much to make my father’s sister tipsy. They were all smokers and my father eventually died of emphysema.

In my late teens and twenties, I drank too much, slowing down when I married and started a family. I am now almost T-total. Unlike my parents I have never smoked, though I have taken marijuana.

My father smoked all his life. He told me that his older sister gave him his first carton of Lucky Strike cigarettes for his birthday, because at 15 years old (in 1923) he was a man. This was also the same year he dropped out stopped going to school to work to help his family. He continued to smoke for over 50 years until he found out he had lung cancer. My mother smoked much of her adult life, but quit some time in the mid seventies.
My older brother and sister both smoked. They were 12 and 10 years older than I, respectively.

I started smoking when I was about 12. My buddies and I would hang out smoking in the alleys of our small Midwestern town, thinking about how cool we were. Talk about peer pressure! Cigarettes were every bit as cool as model cars and planes, souped-up bikes and Elvis.

The merchants in that small town didn’t have a problem selling me cigarettes, especially since they knew my dad and brother and assumed (maybe) the smokes were for one of them.

As far as alcohol, my parents loved to have people over, especially on a Saturday night. They were not alcoholics, but they loved a good party, and the more they drank the more we sang, and the more we sang, the more we drank. From the time I was 14 I was allowed to drink beer at family gatherings.

Even in my later teen years I only remember one or two times I was drinking at other than family gatherings.

I was in the Navy when I first got high on pot.

I stopped smoking tobacco cold turkey in 1981, when I was working at a beer joint in Austin. I was hanging out with other musicians at the time, and cannabis was plentiful in spite of being illegal.

As far as my use mirroring that of my parents, I’d say pretty much.

When I got married and found myself with a family, my pot use dwindled down to very rarely. I’d usually go through a six-pack or two of beer in a week. I never drank a lot of hard liquor.

Now I smoke cannabis several times a week. It’s legal here. I hardly drink alcohol at all due to medical considerations.

@Strauss

“I was in the Navy when I first got high on pot.”

Were you in CINCPAC? Did you see any combat?

@Brian1946 That was 1967–1970. I was first station in the San Francisco area, then shipped out to a hospital ship offshore in Vietnam. Didn’t see any combat, but I saw a lot of the results.