WINE CHATS: Are we really still smoking and vaping? YUCK!

Not only are people still smoking but what’s worse — now there’s vaping too!

This week on The Nightly couch, we settle in with a Prosecco that’s not impressing anyone and chat about something that’s just as unimpressive - smoking and vaping.

Lyndsey: Sorry, Prosecco people. I don’t like Prosecco. I never have, I never will.

Billi: I also do not like Prosecco. This one’s a bit bitter on the tongue. All that texture. Gross. I’m trying to add new wine words to my repertoire.

Lyndsey: You know what else is gross? Smoking.

I’m very passionate about the way I feel towards, number one, people that smoke and smoking in general. I don’t want to be rude, but I will be because I know some people that smoke.

Billi: Still? To this day?

Lyndsey: Right? So bizarre, but yes, and I mean it’s a personal choice if you want to smoke and kill yourself and those around you, that’s fine. That’s your choice. I’m strongly against it though.

Billi: I’m not that strongly against it to be honest, it’s one of those ‘each of their own’ - Henry’s very strongly against it.

See, Yugoslavs, we smoke from the ages of like 12-13. We drink, we smoke, it’s a thing.

Culturally, it’s huge for us. So every once in a while, back in the day, when I would go out and I would get a little bit tipsy, I would smoke. It just seems to go hand in hand.

So I would smoke when I’m a bit drunk and then I’d try and kiss Henry and he’d be like, gross, get away from me, do not come near me.

Lyndsey: I’ve literally tried a cigarette in my whole entire life twice. Once in grade nine. I remember both times. Another time was after I had moved here. Anyways, I’m dead set against it.

This will show you how dead set against it I am. When I fell pregnant with my eldest, my first child, my mother’s first grandchild, and my mom was a smoker all throughout my childhood…

Billi: I’m sorry. I’m just connecting a few dots here. It’s interesting that you’re so dead set against it and you grew up watching your mum smoke.

Lyndsey: I think it’s either one of the two things. You either become a smoker yourself or you become so against it because you had to live with it.

And my mum was very considerate in the sense that she would always only smoke at the kitchen window and the window was always open.

Billi: I could just imagine how nice that time would have been for your mum. That one second of peace at the kitchen window.

And then here’s her daughter coming up and being like, Mum!

Lyndsey: Oh, 100 per cent I was. And the same with my sister. We hated it.

Billi: Oh, your sister hated it too?

Lyndsey: Oh, we hated it. So when I fell pregnant, I told my mum, if you want to hold your grandchild, you have to quit smoking. And I was dead serious. And I actually don’t think that’s a bad thing to do at all.

And she quit smoking. I have instilled that hate for it into my children to the point, if we’re driving and someone in the car beside us is smoking or vaping, they’re like, Mum, that person’s smoking!

I’m like, I know they’re killing themselves. I even go that far. I’m like, yeah, they’re killing themselves. Isn’t that bad? It’s very bad.

Billi: Look, I don’t have this real bad passion for hating smoking or smokers. Don’t really have a problem with it.

Henry and I had this period of breaking up once, and that’s when I could smoke. So I used to go to buy those Vogue cigarettes that were the little skinny ones. They’re menthol.

Lyndsey: We need to pause. We’ve been friends for a very long time. I don’t ever remember you smoking.

Billi: Probably because you feel so strongly about smokers, Lyndsey. You would have dumped me. I already got dumped. I didn’t need two people dumping me in my life.

So no, I don’t really have a thing against it, but I also, because I’ve smoked myself, I never got addicted to it, I don’t like it either.

It’s not like a thing that I wanted to continue to do. It’s gross. I smelled disgusting. My hands were disgusting. The inside of my mouth was constantly disgusting. It’s just not a thing that I would want to be around. I also think that you can smell it on people, it’s this gross odour they emit.

But obviously, with vapes now that have come out, they don’t have that stronger smell like cigarettes do, right? You’ve got blueberry ones, strawberry ones, there’s all these gross, horrible, different ones. I’ve tried vaping. Holy Beep beep.

Lyndsey: It’s supposedly worse than smoking.

Billi: It burns the lungs so bad, at least the one I tried, I was like, oh my God, I’ve tried cigarettes and, I mean, I don’t want my kids doing any of it, but I think to me somehow vapes seem way more dangerous and bad then what cigarette is it? Is that a fact?

Lyndsey: Yes. This is what they are saying now on the news and out in the world, that vapes are way worse than actual cigarettes. Read it up yourself, but that is what is out there.

And because I’m such a worrywart parent, I am petrified because you hear stories about 12-year-olds vaping and high school students are all filled with vapours in the toilets vaping and blah, blah, blah.

Billi: Well, I’m sorry, when you flavour something blueberry, who are you targeting that too?

Lyndsey: But laws have been changed around the flavours and stuff. All I know is that there has been something that’s been changed because those flavours were targeting the kids, right?

Billi: And I’m sorry but these disposable vapes - landfill. That’s it. At least cigarettes kind of go away.

Lyndsey: But filters are small and horrible.

Billi: Don’t get me wrong. Horrible still. But those vapes come with, it’s a little plastic thing that you throw away as soon as you’re done with it.

And there are hundreds of millions of them being sold. That’s so messed up.

Lyndsey: But do you, as a parent, worry about your kids starting to smoke?

Billi: No. Honestly, until you just said it now, it’s never occurred to me. And I think if my kids did smoke, I would have a very interesting conversation.

I wouldn’t be cool with it, but it’s not something that I worry about. I just kind of think it’s out there in the world, they’re gonna try, they’re gonna experiment, that’s cool. I want them to be old enough when they experiment with stuff.

I’m not gonna allow it, but it’s not a thing that super duper worries me, you know what I mean?

Lyndsey: The thing is, kids are gonna do what they want to do, so it’s not like you can allow it or not allow it. That’s what I’m saying. That’s why I’m afraid.

Billi: But you’re afraid about random stuff as well. Lyndsey’s afraid about, you know, the wind blowing and hurting someone. So you just have a lot more worries, I feel.

Lyndsey: Okay, worrying about your kids if they’re gonna become a smoker is not a weird worry.

Billi: I don’t even think about it. I should hope that I’ve taught them enough to be like that is horrible and gross. I don’t even think my kids really understand what people are doing with the smokes and stuff, but I tell them it’s gross.

I’m not encouraging it by any means. But it’s not like a worry that I have.

Lyndsey: Well, I’m gonna kick her off the couch.

Billi: You know what I do worry about? I’m more worried about all these young kids taking up smoking when we know what it’s doing to your skin and your internals

Lyndsey: To wrap it up, she’s not worried about her children starting a deadly habit. She’s worried about these random children having bad skin from smoking.

Billi: Yes, having bad skin, that’s right. Get your priorities straight. Jesus.

Lyndsey: Get off my couch.

Stay young and beautiful

Now that we have our priorities straight, remember that smoking and vaping are gross and weird, that big companies are profiting off your bad habit and instead of paying them, start a little kitty, call it a holiday fund and relax on a beach thinking of how we saved your life.

And please remember to join us next week, same time, here on The Nightly, for some more important life-saving advice!