The Insider for DADS - Smoking through the eyes of fathers

As a part of the FACET research study, “Smoking Through the Eyes of Fathers,” dads were invited to take photos related to their smoking, reducing, and quitting, as they transitioned into fatherhood. The dads were then given an opportunity to share their stories about the photographs. Below are some of the images and stories they shared .

Can you relate to any of the themes or images? Write to us with your responses and/or your suggestions for other themes, and/or submit your own photo and story about “Smoking Through the Eyes of Fathers.” Please note that we reserve the right to edit for readability.

Changing Values

Yeah, I used to go out and sit out front and have my smoke and everything, maybe sit down there and have my coffee and my nice relaxing start to the day on the weekend.

This is another place that I started smoking, it’s got a nice covered little patio and I could go out there and sit down and have a smoke and I would have a coffee in the morning if it was the weekend or, you know, I’d have a beer out there if it’s later on in the evening, it was just a nice place where I could go outside and have a smoke. I built the patio myself.

Sometimes on my way from work I take a break in this park. Or sometimes in the early morning if I feel a craving for a cigarette I prefer to come here because I have coffee with me, there’s a view and very little people usually. Sometimes I skip my cigarettes at the last coffee break at work thinking that will be much more enjoyable to have here or than over there, if the weather is very nice at sunset or something.

I love rum and coke, it’s my favourite drink and it goes good with a smoke. We don’t drink much, so I’d pour that and I’d sneak off to the back and have some quiet time.

Now that I don’t smoke… the drink went just fine without the smoke.

It costs ten bucks basically – it’s a little bit cheaper but ten bucks for a pack of smokes and that’s – at the rate I’m smoking right now that’s one hundred and fifty bucks a month. There’s a lot of things that you can be doing with that amount of money. That’s a good incentive… a good reason to quit. Then I can afford to do hockey or whatever.

In this picture I finished the pack. It doesn’t look very nice, it’s dirty… it makes me feel my lung is black.

This picture has to do how disgusting ashtrays are, to try and make people disgusted of even thinking about smoking. It’s generally what happens when you smoke – you put them out and your ashtray clutters up and you get this big pile of mess and if it’s one out on the balcony and it’s been raining, then it goes all black so generally it just starts looking disgusting. It would be nice for people to see that – maybe a picture is better than seeing it in person, maybe something could trigger something different in people, who knows.

That toilet is outside, it got ripped out of an apartment that we had or an apartment that the wife’s sister has and I don’t know why it got ripped out and its in our backyard and I just thought, you know, kind of throw a pack of cigarettes in there and represent where they’re going, that’s the end, flush them down.

Basically when we’re standing around, we stand around this little grate and toss the smokes in. We’re a big warehouse and you can’t smoke in the office portion so everybody smokes out there…   We dispose all our waste water in there too so it’s – figure it’s all going to the same place.

When you’re dealing with heavy machinery and expensive work pieces, you’re dealing with a relatively high amount of stress. There’s also a lot of pressure to make sure the jobs are done on time, there’s just generally a relatively high amount of stress at work, so when it comes to smoking, I justify in my mind that I did a good job here, I should be able to have a smoke, or I’m stressed out right now and something’s not working the way it should, I’m going to have a smoke. Or it could be a matter of I’m in between jobs right now and I’m just doing a little bit of tidying up, I might as well have one more while I’m doing that or – I mean there’s twenty different scenarios I guess – reasons why in my mind to justify it...

I cannot smoke in people’s, other people’s houses, because I am on the job. And so the only time I have to smoke cigarettes is between my jobs, driving from one point to another. . .it helps sort of, but it also does not help because I am still smoking.

Vehicles: A Favorite Place to Smoke

That’s a picture of one of the trucks that I drive at work - I drive all of them but that’s just one particular one with my coffee, my smokes…first thing in the morning. They just seem to go together, just like beer and smoking goes together.

The morning ritual, you know, I start my morning with a Tim Horton’s coffee and a cigarette, sitting in my truck. A usual start to my work day.