A mum was left flabbergasted after her in-laws were encouraging her five-year-old daughter to smoke.
The woman said she had already asked her sister-in-law not to normalise the nasty habit in front of her children.
But despite her warnings the mum was aghast when she witnessed her husband's family telling her small child they would 'teach' her how to smoke.
Writing for Kidspot.com.au, the woman, who also has a 13-year-old, revealed that at a recent family gathering, her husband's 20-year-old neice brought out a shisha pipe
The mum says she's not a fan because she thinks the habit as harmful to them and everyone else around them, so she sent her children in to play video games in a bid to not normalise the habit.
She said: "On this occasion, however, my daughter came back out to the table and stared at the large bubbling glass centrepiece with the fluorescent pink hose snaking its way to her cousin's mouth and asked, "What's that?"
"Before I could answer, my husband's niece replied, "It's cool, it tastes sweet! When you're 16... no wait... when you're 14, you come up to my house and I'll teach you how to smoke it!"
"'Noooo, it's yucky! You don't want that! Go inside and play with your brother' I countered, ushering her away and following her inside myself.
"I later spoke with my husband about it and he was equally appalled that someone would encourage a five-year-old child to smoke. He had a word with his sister (the mother of the niece who had said it) and she assured him it wouldn't happen again."
Hoping that was the end of the matter, the mum was horrified just a few weeks ago when her 13-year-old son returned from his sister-in-law's house with a big secret.
He told her that his aunt had offered to teach him how to smoke when he was old enough - but warned him not to tell his mum.
The fuming mum branded it a "whole new layer of betrayal", understandably fuming at her sister-in-law's efforts to keep it secret.
She said her son told her: "Mum, Aunty D told me not to tell you but she said when I'm old enough I should come to her house and she'll get one of my cousins to teach me how to smoke.
"I composed myself when my son was shaking his head in front of me and I casually asked him what he thought about his aunty's comment about the shisha.
"I never want to do that," he said with the shake of his head. "It's gross."
"His response made me proud, but not as much as he did simply by telling me something another adult in his life told him to keep a secret from his mother. That's a whole new layer of betrayal."
According to the NHS, shisha smoke contains cancer-causing chemicals and toxic gases such as carbon monoxide.
A 2016 analysis of several studies suggested that during 1 session on a waterpipe a person can take in up to:
- the same amount of tar as if they had smoked 25 cigarettes
- the same amount of carbon monoxide as if they had smoked 11 cigarettes
- the same amount of nicotine as if they had smoked 2 cigarettes
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