*This is a collaborative post
The influence that peers have on our lives starts at early childhood and becomes greater as we grow into teenagers. There are 6 main forms that this can take. Peer pressure can be direct, indirect, positive, negative, unspoken and spoken. All these types can in some way contribute to your child’s mental health and even make them feel pressured to act in a way that they otherwise wouldn’t. This is especially harder as kids go into secondary school with the pressure of smoking/vaping amongst teens. Hence why a vape detector may start to become a thing in schools. Peer pressure can be a hard social force to ignore which is why we have teamed up with an independent school in Bristol to share ways that you can teach your child to resist peer pressure.
Promote Self Love
Self-love can help children to feel confident in who they are without needing to seek the validation of others, allowing them to take control of their actions and resist peer pressure. This is something that parents can preach by showing their children what a healthy self-relationship looks like and by surrounding their child with love. Making sure that your child feels beautiful, knows their worth and qualities can help you to do this.
Reinforce Good Values
Teaching your child what’s right from wrong from an early age and the reasons why can help them to stand by good values through to adulthood. This helps them to know when something’s not right, walk away and say no.
How to Reject Peer Pressure Calmly
Saying no can feel uncomfortable at times and teaching them how to get around awkward situations can help them. This might be to offer alternatives and to explain why.
Spotting Bad Friends
Not all the friends that your child will make will be a positive influence on them and training them on how to spot a bad friend can help them to distance themselves from those individuals. This includes the typical traits like those that talk bad about others or put you down, encourage you to do bad things or involve themselves in bad activities.
