Objective: To investigate whether perceived parental smoking is related to pretend smoking in young children and whether children influence each other in pretend smoking.Design: Children who reported to have at least one smoking parent were coupled with children who had non-smoking parents. Both children were then asked to pretend that they were grownups having a barbeque party. During their role-playing, the children were observed in order to assess their pretend smoking behaviours and to examine whether children of smoking parents were more likely to initiate pretend smoking. Setting:Children were tested at their schools. Participants:The sample consisted of 206 children between four and seven years of age (M = 5.14, SD = .87), of which 54.4% were girls. Measurements:The main outcome was whether a child pretended to be smoking and whether the child initiated or followed the other child in this behaviour.Findings: During their play, 63.6% (n = 131) of the children pretended to smoke. Children of smoking parents were more likely to initiate pretend smoking than to follow.