Note To Self: Daughter will smell marijuana while walking down the streets of San Francisco

No People.  I was not smoking marijuana around my kid.  No, I don't smoke marijuana (though I may have in my sordid past, but let's not go there).

Yesterday, I was walking in San Francisco with my daughter and there it came.  A big cloud of smoke.  As we were cutting through a condo complex to get to Hayes Street. That all too familiar smell.....

Julia:  Mommy, what is that smell?  It smells so good!   

Shit.... she likes this smell at eight years old?  Damn... I am going to be in some big time trouble when she gets a little older.

So here is my mind at work.  Come on Jill, you can come up with a good answer to this one!

Me:  What smell?  I don't smell anything. (Can you tell that I am all about AVOIDING this conversation).

Julia:  But Mommy, it smells like flowers.  Look at this big cloud of smoke. Maybe someone is burning flowers.  Doesn't it smell good?  Yummy!  It makes me want to eat it.  (Coming from a child who barely eats one spoonful for dinner!  She is getting the munchies from one whiff of pot?)

Me:  Ok Julia, it is pot.  It is marijuana.  It is really bad for you and whoever is smoking it is doing something that is against the law.  It is WORSE than smoking a cigarette and can hurt your lungs.  It is gross.  Don't do it when you get older.

Julia:  Really, it is like cigarettes?  But cigarettes smell awful.  This smells really good.  Are you sure it is bad for me?

Me:  (Dear Lord, am I really having THIS conversation?  Me?  I am such a hypocrite.  If only she knew me in my college days.  But of course, I did not inhale!  Right?). Julia, it is not good for you.  Please don't do it.  Ever.  Please....  and if you are approached by a friend to smoke marijuana, TELL ME RIGHT AWAY.

And with that, the conversation ended.

How come no one told me this parenting gig would be so tricky?

.... have you talked to your kids about marijuana?  Any words of wisdom for this lame parent?