My 72-Year-Old Mother-in-Law Smoked Every Day in Front of My Young Children, Ignoring My Desperate Pleas. But One Evening, When I Secretly Watched Them, I Saw WHAT SHE WAS TEACHING My Two Children. The Most Terrifying Part Was That They Weren’t Even Resisting—They Were Actually Begging Their Grandmother to Continue… – Happy paws

Martha lowered her head.

“Because I asked them to. I wanted to prove I could do it before telling you. I’ve made you so many promises and broken them that I was ashamed to make another one.”

“And what about the cigarette smell on the children’s jackets?”

“That was my fault,” she admitted. “At first, I was still smoking in the kitchen. They sat beside me, and I was so focused on my own struggle that I didn’t realize I was exposing them to danger.”

She took my hand.

“You were right, Sarah. I was setting a terrible example. And these children turned out to be wiser than I was. Instead of shaming me, they offered to help.”

Then I remembered something else.

“Martha, yesterday I saw you through the window holding a real cigarette.”

She nodded.

“Yes. Yesterday, I gave in. I lit one. But Jack came over, took my hand, and said, ‘Grandma, making one mistake doesn’t mean you have to give up.’”