As a non-parent, I've always wondered.....

What do folks with kids do when they also have a grow?

Does one try to hide it from them?
Do you let them know about it & try to explain your rationale for growing
even though it's probably illegal where you live?
Depending on how old the kids are, do you have to worry about them telling their friends?

Just how do parents deal with this issue?

Bh

[shovelhead]

I never grew when the kids were here but I put a lock on the bedroom door where i kept booze,pot,cigs,and anything else I didn't want them into after they got off the bus and before their mother got home.
I probably would try to keep it hidden from them until a certain age,16 or so. You wouldn't believe the amount of brainwashing that goes on in school. Children are encouraged to rat out their parents for toking in the DARE program. One bad day/arguement,piss off your 12 year old and you could be busted.

[foaf]

ive got an 11 yo and a 14 yo, and we live outside of Amsterdam some of the year and in the states at other times. I only grow in Amsterdam, but I still dont want my kids to know and my job is tied to the States so its not cool for me to be outted.

anyway, we redid this anchient house here with a back garage, and I put in a sort of secret room fake wall in a wood working shop, it gives me 3 x 10 feet, and thats enought that my last grow gave up almost 4 lbs and still have room to have some space for a secret laboratory too.

my wife and kids dont even know about it, now the wife knows I smoke, and she knows I have grown outdoors when the kids were too small to care. it took a while to smuggle everything in there despite all the equipment being legal and easy to come by here. in the long run, its the best deal around, no legal worries and keeping the kids and wife out of the loop, no social or job worries.

it might not be easy for others to duplicate something like this, but if you can, its just great.

[9Lives]

Im am not an old stoner by any means but foaf...that IMO is as good as it gets given the circumstances..may i ask what you do for a living?...good topic btw

[foaf]

Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Let just say I went to school a long time and don't get paid enough and its in the medical technology field. School year overseas and summers at home in the deep south.

Another thought with kids

Talking to kids about pot use is a hard subject, and not exactly related to the topic of this thread, butt.... If you kids know you smoke pot all the time and grow pot, you cannot be a voice of restraint for them and have any credibility. So I hide it and lie for now. Possibly not the best way to handle it, but so far so good.

I fully plan to openly communicate with them about my cannabis/psychadelic use, but it's not time yet. I am, like most of us, a big advocate of the free use of cannabis, but I really don't think that it is for children or young teens. If I could go back, I would not smoke pot so much or drink so much between 13 and 18 like I did, and I would be better for it today. That said, in college, the kids that were drunks and failed out from drinking were those who generally grew up in homes where drinking was taboo with 0 tolerance, and I dont see where cannabis would be any different. Its a hard grey area to maneuver.

Our kid knew about our closet grow, would come in and ask a couple of questions and leave. We never really made a big deal of it.

That changed when I picked up our kid and the neighbors kid from school one day. That day, they had planted a pumpkin seed in a Dixie cup for Halloween so the could grow thier own pumpkin. On the way home, our kid asked if they could put thier pumpkin plant in the closet with my plants.

Then our neighbors kid asked why you would have plants in a closet? and wanted to put thier plant in too.

Things just got complicated

My wife and I were going to explain to our kid that what we were doing is not legal and you shouldn't say anything to anyone and blah, blah, blah.

But, then we figured we had no right to put that kind of pressure on a 4 year old. And we were not willing to take the added risk of us getting accidently told on.

So, we just stopped growing. That night we took everthing down and packed it all away.

We did buy one of those cheapy little grow bulbs and made a little set up in our kids room for the pumpkin.

We'll grow again someday.

I'm enjoying seed collecting now as a hobby.

Thanks for your responses folks.
I just knew that this had to be a tricky situation for some people. I began to think about this quite a while back as I would occasionally notice someone in some thread mention they had kids. Since I don't have kids I often wondered how would I handle this if I did have them.
Anyway, thought a discussion on the subject might help others who are struggling with what to do.

Stay safe all.......

Bh

[shovelhead]

Funny,I used to know a couple who would party opnly in front of their kids,8 and 10 at the time.They said they didn't want to sneak around,wanted to be open with their kids,etc. I asked the 10 year old boy one day if he was going to smoke when he got big,he said "No way,it makes people stupid".

Then I kicked his ass at Tank Destroyer. He wanted to know where I came up with the idea of getting my shots to curve around corners.

Long time ago,lost touch with them so I don't know how they turned out.

[chillyhilly]

I have 2 kids under 10 and am definitely taking the stealth route. In fact my wife doesnt know that I smoke and I will keep it cool. I look forward to the day that I can be open with my kids about my hobby, but I am waiting till they are over 17? Its nice to hear that other folks in the family way still smoke and think about these parenting issues.

[drmota]

i have 7 kids in my home ( 16-3 ) 5 have been told and the other 2 are to young. after my wife and i being on pain meds for so long we switched to mmj. the kids understand and like us better as the pills made us mean as hell. we are also recovering addicts for many years and our kids were raised in that environment but we have educated them on the medicinal propeties of the herb and they are also pretty good at keeping our family business at home.