Parents spend a lot of time teaching their kids right from wrong. They show them what they think is right and hope they can keep their children from falling for negative peer pressure. Even though we work hard at raising our children to do what's right, they will still make mistakes along the way. It's not feasible to expect them not to make mistakes, but we can still help them learn to stay on track by utilizing some techniques to avoid peer pressure.
Some children will blame others when they're caught breaking a rule. In most of those cases, the kids end up getting away with it, and are rarely held accountable for their actions. Your child is not immune to being blamed for something they really didn't do by someone who they feel is their friend. Even though you may know your child isn't at fault and it's the friend who broke the rules, you should still put some responsibility on your child. We teach them that they should be held responsible for their actions, so that ultimately would include their choice in friends.
You should teach your child how to get out of bad situations and avoid peer pressure. One of the best ways to help them avoid giving into peer pressure is to role play. Think of various situations where peer pressure could rear its ugly head. Then role play them with your child to help them learn proper ways to deal with the situations. Let them tell you how they would handle the situation first and then share what you think should be done to handle it.
Let them know that you're there to help when needed; especially if their friend won't listen and insists that your child go along with the rule breaking incident. Sometimes, the simple act of stating that another adult could get involved, may make the other friend think twice before engaging in the rule breaking activity.
Your child will need to know that even though you're not in charge of the friend, you are still a parent or guardian to your child and enforce the rules you have in place for their health and safety.
The rules can be adjusted as the child grows older and they start to understand respect for others and their property. They will need to know that trust is something that will have to be built over time and they should abide by the rules to increase your trust in them and gain more freedom for themselves.
The pressure to conform (to do what others are doing) can be powerful and hard to resist. A person might feel pressure to do something just because others are doing it (or say they are). Peer pressure can influence a person to do something that is relatively harmless ? or something that has more serious consequences. Giving in to the pressure to dress a certain way is one thing ? going along with the crowd to drink or smoke is another.
There are other children who exhibit positive peer pressure behaviors. Let your child know that these are the friends they should be hanging out with, so the good behavior rubs off on your child. The more favorable the intentions the other children have, the better off your child will be in handling peer pressure situations.
As parents we are very protective of our children and spend a lot of time trying to keep them from getting themselves into trouble. Amongst other things this means teaching them what we believe to be right so that they do not find themselves giving in to negative peer pressure. But, at the end of the day, kids will be kids and when they get to be teenagers in particular there are going to be times when, despite your best efforts, they are going to get into trouble. So, what can we do to get them back on the rails?
The first thing you need to do is to understand the environment in which your teens are operating and that often means thinking back to your own days as a teenager. One common practice for example is to put the blame onto someone else. We are all familiar with the "it's not my fault I only did what John told me to do and he said it was okay" routine. I do not know of many teenagers who will not use this type of excuse and the moment it appears for the first time is the moment to step in and begin teaching your teens the meaning of responsibility because, the sooner they learn that they must take responsibility for there own actions, and that they will be held accountable for their actions, the better.
This is sometimes an easy concept for teenagers to understand, but it is not always easy for them to see how to avoid getting into trouble in these circumstances and one good way around this is to sit down and role play with them. Come up with various different situations and then help them by providing ways in which they can get themselves out of a corner that they are being backed into. Perhaps most important at this stage is also to teach them that, if their friends simply will not listen to them and insist that they join in, then they can always simply walk away and, if necessary, call you to come and pick them up. You will also be surprised how often the simple act of calling a parent ostensibly to ask if something is okay will cause a friend, or group of friends, to change their mind.
Your child also needs to understand that your responsibility extends to him and not to his friends and that, regardless of what his friends do, or are allowed to do by their parents, your role in bringing him up means setting rules which you consider to be appropriate to him and which are set out of your concern for him and for his protection. Having laid this framework, you then need to set specific rules and draw boundaries within which he must operate.
Finally, remember that not all peer pressure is bad and that interacting with other teenagers is an important part of growing up and that your own teenager can learn a great deal from talking with his friends and watching the actions of those around him. Of course it does help if they have friends who follow the rules, but you cannot choose your teenagers' friends for them and will have to be prepared to cope with whatever they throw at you.
Both Aurelia Williams & Donald Saunders are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Aurelia Williams has sinced written about articles on various topics from Parenting, Fitness and Family Concerns. Aurelia Williams is a certified life coach and author of . Learn how to make sense of what's going. Aurelia Williams's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.
Donald Saunders has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health Insurance, Forex Training and Diabetes Treatment. Parenting4dummies.com provides information on all aspects of including providing appropriate. Donald Saunders's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.