Have You Ever Been a Victim of Peer Pressure as a Teenager?

Parents should have frequent family activity such as hiking, picnics, and in door board games. Parents should have started doing those activities when their kids were at a very young age; those children are less likely to be drawn into peer pressure. The more a parent keep participating in their lives they will eventually develop a closer relationship with their children. Children who often spend quality time with their parents are less likely to give in to peer pressure. Parents should encourage their children to keep friends that have positive quality. If their next door neighbor’s children possess that quality then they should allow them to join in with their family activities.  Parents should also encourage their children to participate in school activities.

A parent must make an effort to get to know their children’s friends and also get acquainted with their parents too.  Then parents will be able to find out if their children friends have the same values that are similar to theirs…As parents we should know where our children are, who they  are with and what they are doing at all times. Try not to criticize your children’s friends even if you think they are bad influence on your kids.  If your kids think otherwise them they will only get defensive and also continue to see such friends out a sense of loyalty or better yet to rebel against us the parents. For instance if you think that their friends are a bad influence to your kids don’t criticize them instead talk to your kids about their friends specific behavior and/or actions. Let them know that you notice whenever their friend comes over they tent to break the house rules. Try to figure out why and address the problem as you feel fit. Now a day’s children will easily give into peer pressure and develop a friendship with bad companions for many different reasons. One reason could be that your child lacks self-confidence necessary to defend themselves against their peers, which simply means that parents should take steps to improve their kid’s confidence.

Helping your children to have a wide verity of different type of friends could be helpful also. This exposure should help your kids to develop different interests and ideas. By modeling and/or demonstrating these behaviors for your kids to follow in your footsteps is one of the best ways for them to learn. Children will learn a valuable lesson from parents who resist pressure from their own peers and if the parents who express their individuality are pretty much doing the same thing. They must stress the importance of being one’s own person and doing what they think is the right thing to do.

Showing your kids how to stand up in what they believe in is teaching them how to be assertive. Parents should use role-playing to demonstrate the responses to a verity of different situations.  This would be a good way for your child to practice what they have learned and be able to say no to their peers. Teaching your children how to solve problems when facing their peers will certainly help. Probably by explaining the reasons why they should refuse to participate in a certain activity will help them to comprehend more. If parents keep on praising their kids when they act in an assertive manner the behavior that is praised will more than likely to be repeated.                                

Parents should try using natural consequences or other form of punishment when their children gave in to peer pressure and did something inappropriate. I think that perhaps lecturing alone won’t be enough to discourage such behavior in the future. Restricting their privileges, not allowing the child to spend a great deal of time with a certain group of friends whom you thought have a bad influence on your child or requiring that your child must make restitution for the wrong he or she has done would be a natural consequences. In a case where your child is consistently giving into peer pressure or persistently keep getting into trouble with bad companions then you need to seek a mental health professional for your child because it’s the right thing to do.