Teaching your child to resist peer pressure

This is a collaborative post

The role of a parent is no joke and can come with some of the most daunting and difficult obstacles. One of these is your child facing peer pressure. This usually takes place at school and can come up at any stage in a child’s life. However, as a child gets older, peer pressure can be something that gets in the way of their academic development. With the excitement of being rebellious and seeing peer’s complete mischievous acts, it can be easy to fall into the trap of following the crowd and getting caught into a web of mess. From shoplifting to cheating in class, there are so many ways a child can be pressured into doing acts that they would normally steer clear from. To try and avoid this, here are some tips on teaching your child to resist peer pressure. 

Prepare yourself for possible scenarios

As a parent, you will always do your best to raise your child with great morals and values. However, even if these are integrated into your child’s mind from birth, there are still chances that they can easily be influenced when they are older and take part in things you never taught them. Begin by discussing age-appropriate situations with your child. For younger children, you may discuss not to purposely exclude a classmate to make them feel sad or teasing someone for their differences.

With older children, it becomes a lot more serious as you will have to discuss the consequences of skipping class or taking part in illegal activities such as shoplifting or drugs. Be sure to set out clear rules and make them understand that no matter how tempting something may be, it will not be tolerated under any circumstance.

Finding the right friends

One of the easiest ways to help your child resist peer pressure, is by ensuring they have a good set of friends. The trap of peer pressure becomes evident when your child is around people that they can’t truly be themselves around. This includes lacking the confidence to speak their mind and going with the crowd to instil likeability.

Remind your child to look for friends who match their energy and share similar values and ethics. If they notice a friend is promoting bad behaviour, teach them how to distance themselves. Friends play such a large role in the emotional development of both children and young adults, which is why it is so important that they pick the right ones. Influence starts early on, so help your child create a good network of people that allow them to be themselves and live harmoniously.