If you have children, you want to be around to see them grow up. They in turn want to have you around as long as possible.

You probably want to live long enough to see your grandchildren grow up, too. They say that being a grandparent is the reward we get for being a parent.

If you are a parent, you also care about the health of your children, those already born and those not yet here. You want to give them the healthiest start in life that you can.

If you smoke, you are depriving your children in both these ways. You have a smaller chance of seeing your grandchildren, and you are risking the health of your children, both those already born and those not yet born.

If you smoke while pregnant your unborn child has a greater chance of being stillborn. Even if you stop smoking after you get pregnant you are less likely to have a stillborn baby than if you smoke throughout your pregnancy. Stop smoking for your unborn baby's sake.

Did you know that there are 400,000 deaths each year in the United States that are attributed to cigarette smoking? Listen to this: Doctors say that smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the United States.

Cancer, diabetes, asthma, heart attach, stroke, car accidents and murder. These are somewhat preventable. But deaths caused by smoking are the MOST preventable. They could have been prevented.

It's so sad when you see a child that is having to grow up without a parent. It's sad when the son or daughter at any age has to watch their mom or dad die slowly from emphysema.

I can't get the image out of my head of seeing Lucie Arnaz walking out of her dad's house soon after he passed away. When the news cameras approached her, she had one message: Don't smoke. That was it.

Her message wasn't, "He had a good life," or "I miss him already." It was simply "Don't smoke."

For months she had watched her dad suffer, struggling to breath, after he had destroyed his lungs with cigarette smoke. All she could think of was the waste of it all. If he had only not smoked he would have still been with her.

Do your kids a favor: Don't smoke. Stop smoking today. Get help if you need it, but decide today that you are going to quit smoking.