DEAR ABBY: My hubby is a smoker. He was one when we married. He promised he'd quit before our wedding; it didn't happen. When I became pregnant, he promised again he would stop. Didn't happen.
Our son is now 2 years old and "Tom" still sneaks out to smoke, and I am sure he does at work, too. His mother passed a year ago from cancer -- she was a longtime smoker, and his father has now been diagnosed with cancer. (He's a longtime smoker, too.)
I am terrified for Tom and our family. What can I do other than threaten, cry, etc. to get him to stop? -- KELLY IN TEXAS
DEAR KELLY: You're right to be worried and you have my sympathy. Smoking cessation programs are available through the American Cancer Society, but work only if the smoker is willing to avail himself. Nothing you can do will "make" your husband give up tobacco. He has been nicotine-saturated from birth. Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the U.S. If the fact that both his parents were diagnosed with cancer -- probably from smoking -- hasn't convinced him to stop, frankly, nothing will.
You can protect your son by insisting that Tom not smoke in the boy's presence -- and when he's old enough, that he understands that his father has an addiction and cannot stop, as a warning not to start. Then pray the "family tradition" isn't passed down yet again.