Peer Pressure

This week being back to school for a lot of children, there is a chance that your child will have to deal with peer pressure. As parents we have to equip our children with the tools to stand up to peer pressure. Our children's peers impact their life quite a bit. Just by spending time with certain individuals things rub off on our kids that they probably don't even realize. Sometimes peers influence each other in negative ways. For example, a few kids in school might try to get your child to cut class with them, their so called friends might try to convince them to be mean to another person and never talk to that person, or a kid in the neighborhood might want you to shoplift with them. These are all things that our children may be faced with and they will have to make a quick decision that can impact them greatly. There are so many young men in jail right now because they made one wrong decision.
Why do our children give in to peer pressure? Some kids do it because they want to be liked. They simply do not want the other kids to make fun of them, if they choose not to go along with the crowd. Some kids are curious to do what others are doing, its the old "everybody is doing it" idea that can influence kids to abandon their better judgment. Its very tough on kids to know how to stand up for what is right in the face of ridicule.
Dealing with peer pressure is something we must talk to our children about. Help build inner strength within them to stand up for themselves. Teach them not to be a follower but to be a leader and  walk away from peer pressure. Teach them that resisting temptation to do what is bad is far more rewarding than doing what everybody else is doing. It can also be a huge help to have at least one other peer, or friend, who is willing to say "no," too. This takes a lot of the power out of peer pressure and makes it much easier to resist. It's great to have friends with values similar to yours who will back you up when you don't want to do something.  As parents we need to insure that our children understand that it's OK to be there own person and to not give into the temptation of following what others do.