Daily Doses of Peer Pressure Prevention

There are three things you can do each day to help your teen better manage peer pressure. Every day it is going to take work from you and your teen in order to deal successfully with peer pressure. These pressures are what can cause long-term problems, if your teen submits to them. However, simply by doing these things each day, you can minimize the risk of your teen falling prey to peer pressure.

Peer pressure is both negative and positive. Therefore managing the different types of peer pressure is key to becoming a success. This is why your help and support is necessary to help you teen manage the peer pressure.

#1 Communication

Communication is one of the key factors to working with your teen and helping them manage peer pressure. The more open communication that happens, the more likely your teen is going to tell you what is happening in their life.

Here are a few tips for opening up communication:

Listen! The main thing about communication that people miss is the listening part. It is important to listen to the little things as well as the big things.
Do not jump to conclusions. If you are always making mountains out of molehills, your teen will be less likely to talk to you.
Watch for your queue to communicate. There are times that your teen will want to talk, but may be hesitating. Ask the right questions at this time, and you will find out the information you need to know.

#2 Pay attention

As parents we pay for clothes, phones, books, transportation, etc. However, how often are we paying attention? There are warning signs that our teens need us, or are in a situation they should not be in. Watching for these signs will help you know that it is time to talk to your teen.

Here are some signs to be aware of:

Withdrawn
Drop in grades
Breaking rules
Skipping school
Physical markings and actions (cuts on arms, needle marks, fatigue or excitable look)
Stopping of normal actions and activities. (No more swim team etc.)

Basically you want to pay attention to the changes that would happen that are unexplained. There are some times that a teen will simply change their interest or change their mind. However sometimes this is due to peer pressure. That is when you need to talk.

Learn to watch your teen’s actions and behaviors. You know what they do. You have watched them for years. You know their behaviors. The main thing is to see if something changes for the negative.

#3 Unconditional love

Show your teen that no matter what, you will love them. Love and a strong relationship is your best defense against the pressures that your teen will go through. Teens are going to make risky decisions. That is how they learn to become their own person. However, there are some decisions that do not need to be made in the negative in order to become an adult.

This is where love is a great tool. If your teen knows that no matter what they choose, they will always have love, then they will be able to be strong and secure in their decisions.

So often a teen will say, “I do what my friends do because they are my family!” What they need to be thinking is that they have a strong family and are loved. Therefore, they can be secure in not following in the poor decisions of their friends.

The more you and your teen hang out, have fun and share love and communication, the better chance you have of being able to help them manage the peer pressure they are in on a daily basis. Remember that this can be life and death to your teen. It is worth the time to do these three simple things every day.