Hookah lounges: acceptable teen hangout?

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Shisha (hookah) can be more harmful than cigarettes. Check the link provided a couple of posts up.

I personally have felt more ill after spending an evening in a dining area adjacent to a shisha smoking area than I have ever felt after spending an evening around heavy smokers.
 
Well I don’t like the sound of it but aside from what our opinions of a Hookah bar is, bluerose your son is almost grown up. Mostly all you can do now is have faith that you’ve morally prepared him …and keep praying.
 
I thin you have the situation under control. Are you also friends with the parents (not owners) who chaparone the kids? If not, that would be my next step. Around here the hooka lounges are like a cooler, hipper version of a coffee bar where people hang out with their laptops. The lounge your son is going to sounds like a relatively good situation.
bluerose said:
Yeah, my first thought was “Alice in Wonderland”, too!

Funny enough, the “18 and over” night last week was a '70s themed party!

DH and I have done a few “drive bys” on teen night… and DH works for the city, knows some guys at DPS (which is a block away from the hookah lounge), has given them the heads up… Our son has made a few bone-headed decisions (what teenager hasn’t???), but on the whole is pretty level, as are most of his friends… I guess I just have to trust and nag/not nag enough to remind him that smoking even harmless herbs is not a good thing. And I friended the owner of the establishment AND his wife on Facebook and made sure they knew I was a parent who’d be monitoring conditions… they were very happy to accept my friendship offer, assured me that they took good care of the teens, and insisted that I feel free to ask questions or drop by anytime (I am apprently one of about a dozen parents who’ve done the same… and our kids have not disowned us yet!)

@cradlecatholic5–apparently, hookah lounges are not considered to be in violation of non-smoking laws because they are neither smoking tobacco nor illegal drugs.

I have to remind myself that my generation was into break-dancing and spraying graffiti on overpasses (not that I did either, but I had friends who had friends who did :o)… now we have kids, mortgages and SUV’s and jobs to pay for them, so I guess everyone has their phase to go through… and the parents survive as well!
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bluerose said:
Code: 
				Originally Posted by **puzzleannie** 					[forums.catholic-questions.org/images/buttons_khaki/viewpost.gif](http://forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=8014391#post8014391) 				
			**don't let some hookah-smoking caterpiller tell you what to do**
(am I showing my age?)

then bluerose says, Yeah, my first thought was “Alice in Wonderland”, too!

Funny enough, the “18 and over” night last week was a '70s themed party!
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Not being familiar enough with the source material in Alice in Wonderland, all this time I thought the line in the song was about a hookah-smoking “character”, not caterpillar. I was imagining some guy with shifty eyes and a dark suit and narrow tie sitting in the corner of the bar smoking a hookah. “Caterpillar” is totally different! Makes me now think of the very hungry caterpillar, and wondering if that’s why he was so hungry… Not that I know anything about such things for real.
 
The human body was not made to smoke anything. God formed us to inhale air, not burning plants.

Some friends of mine got started by smoking hookah. Then they started smoking weed because, they reasoned, “it’s practically the same thing.” Hookah lounges are bad news!
 
It sounds to me like the hookah bar your son goes to is completely fine. They’re not even allowing the teens to smoke. I’d say to let him keep going, unless he gives you reason to believe otherwise. If you have a good line of communication, then you should trust your son.
 
bluerose said:
Oh, yes… he wouldn’t like it, but he’d agree and he wouldn’t make a big fuss over it. He went last night and had a blast singing karaoke with his friends (teen night, so no hookahs). So far he hasn’t given me a reason not to trust him. We’re taking it one day at a time and keeping the lines of communication open with him, his friends and his friends’ parents.
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Then he sounds like a ggod kid and probably will respect the fact that you are giving him some trust. Explain your concerns and wait for a big issue to put your foot down. Plus if he breaks your trust then you have reason to put your foot down.
 
I’ve been to hookah bars when I was 17. Some places ID, other’s don’t. Told my mum where I was, who I was with, and when I’d be home. I can’t say the same for ALL hookah bars, but the one I went to served just Shisha and nobody was there to get high. It was our thing get a group together on Wednesday nights and hangout there.

Basically it comes down to: Do you trust your son? Do you trust the location and his friends?
 
Tobacco in my opinion, is a sin if used in excess. It is a “vice”, which I don’t believe is a sin, but something that can be an addiction if done on a regular basis.

I would let your 17 old do his own thing. He will realize that he wants to be fit and strong so he can be attractive to women and smoking that all the time will prevent that. He will learn on his own.
 
Don_Machiavelli said:
Tobacco in my opinion, is a sin if used in excess. It is a “vice”, which I don’t believe is a sin, but something that can be an addiction if done on a regular basis.
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What constitutes “excess”? Tobacco is addictive and causes numerous health problems (cancer, heart disease, etc.) both for the smoker and for those exposed to the second-hand smoke. Unlike drinking alcohol, which may have some health benefits under certain conditions, I am not aware of any objective benefit of smoking tobacco.

No benefits; numerous serious risks. Seems like the bar is fairly low for smoking tobacco to be immoral for causing harm to our bodies. As with any immoral act, it may not be a sin for a particular user if they are already addicted, which makes the act less voluntary.
 
VivienneJ said:
Shisha (hookah) can be more harmful than cigarettes. Check the link provided a couple of posts up.
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Yes, some very good points in the Ann Arbor article.

As someone else mentioned, the lungs are made for inhaling air, not combustion byproducts. They are already under constant assault by the junk in the air, why add more?
 
ConsciousCoward said:
Because of how it works, hookah is nowhere near as physically harmful as any other type of smoking. The herbs being burned are natural, meaning they don’t have any of the cancer-causing tar or adhesives that cigarettes do, and because the smoke is water-cooled, there is also no temperature damage to the lungs or throat.

Hookah is one of the most harmless things a teenager can do. I have friend’s that go, though I don’t because I have a psychological aversion of inhaling smoke or vapor (almost a phobia, to the point that showering is incredibly unnerving). However, hookah is only about as hard on the body as inhaling water vapor in the shower.
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Would you be so kind as to provide some authoritative evidence to back up these claims?

Remember that a hookah is a device for smoking; the harm is determined primarily by what substance is being smoked. At this point, I think the best that can be said is that we don’t know that smoking specific herbs is as harmful as tobacco: how many of them have been studied, and for how long? Keep in mind how long it took to demonstrate the health risks of smoking tobacco. Also keep in mind that burning any organic material produces carbon monoxide (CO), which will be inhaled with the smoke. One of the dangers of CO inhalation is that hemoglobin, the substance that transports oxygen (O2) in the blood, has a much higher affinity for CO than O2: the more smoke you inhale, the more you deprive your body of oxygen. Not a good thing.
 
I am 44 years old, and both of my sons are grown now, and faithful in their parishes. So, that’s my qualifier, LOL. When my oldest son first approached me about a new Hookah Lounge in our town, I, too, was suspicious. But, he wanted me to GO WITH HIM and check it out!

Now, back when I was in high school, (and smoking something a lot more dangerous) I did NOT want my parents going with me anywhere! 😉 So, the fact that he wanted me to come put me at ease right away. And yes, I went! So did my mom! And, it was great. Not my scene, really, but I am glad I went.

Our society is so indoctrinated by ‘anti-smoking’ propaganda that we automatically feel like we should be against anything involving ‘smoking’, but the herbs at hookah bars are very different. Be informed! Research it, go with your kids. Being a part of our kids lives was such a blessing to us, and we ended up with some really awesome young men because of it.
 
jerry74383;8113822*:
What constitutes “excess”?
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Tobacco is addictive and causes numerous health problems (cancer, heart disease, etc.) both for the smoker and for those exposed to the second-hand smoke. Unlike drinking alcohol, which may have some health benefits under certain conditions, I am not aware of any objective benefit of smoking tobacco.

No benefits; numerous serious risks. Seems like the bar is fairly low for smoking tobacco to be immoral for causing harm to our bodies. As with any immoral act, it may not be a sin for a particular user if they are already addicted, which makes the act less voluntary.

It can vary per person, but generally it’s when the substance or actions begin to cause problems(health, relationship, financial etc…) for that person. I enjoy a nice pipe, cigar, hookah, or a cig when I’m out with friends or siting on the patio sometimes. Does it benefit my health? No.But the social apathy or relaxation it provides sure does contribute to my happiness.
 
I love going to hookah lounges with my husband on the weekends, it’s a nice time for us to sit and talk over a beer and hookah. We also smoke cigarettes but it’s not the same. Usually we are driving or watching TV or finishing dinner when we smoke at home and we don’t talk.
 
I agree, people tend to blow this kind of thing way out of proportion. Two of my closest and dearest friends who led me into the Catholic faith, when we visit, we usually end up smoking tobacco from the hookah one friend brought back from Iraq. I enjoy it very much. Its just like anything else; most anything can be addictive for someone with addictive tendencies, I’d be much more worried about my kids being addicted to McDonald’s and Dr. Pepper than going to a hookah bar…

But, on that note, I’d probably be a bit worried about the place and what other kinds of questionable mess they might get in to, but then if my kids are anything like me, it doesn’t really matter. If they’re going to do it they will and they’ll be so good at concealing it that they’ll do it right behind your suspicious back without you even having a clue. It all comes down to what kind of kids they are and how good a job we do instilling God’s values in them.
Morningtower said:
I am 44 years old, and both of my sons are grown now, and faithful in their parishes. So, that’s my qualifier, LOL. When my oldest son first approached me about a new Hookah Lounge in our town, I, too, was suspicious. But, he wanted me to GO WITH HIM and check it out!

Now, back when I was in high school, (and smoking something a lot more dangerous) I did NOT want my parents going with me anywhere! 😉 So, the fact that he wanted me to come put me at ease right away. And yes, I went! So did my mom! And, it was great. Not my scene, really, but I am glad I went.

Our society is so indoctrinated by ‘anti-smoking’ propaganda that we automatically feel like we should be against anything involving ‘smoking’, but the herbs at hookah bars are very different. Be informed! Research it, go with your kids. Being a part of our kids lives was such a blessing to us, and we ended up with some really awesome young men because of it.
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The Khalil Mamoon Hookahs is hand crafted and it features intrinsic designs that further increase the appeal they have in the market. These are easily portable and consequently, users are able to move around with them with great ease.

Hookah For Sale
 
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