Teaching Your Kids to Resist Peer Pressure*

Peer pressure can be awful and can lead to children and adults of all ages to be pressured into doing something that they wouldn’t otherwise have even considered. This can lead to all sorts of troublesome situations and problems that are not pleasant to face as a parent. So how can we teach our kids to resist peer pressure from a young age? Oaks International School in Cambridge have put together a helpful yet simple guide to help.

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Keep up the communication
Your child might have already been in certain situations when they have felt uncomfortable or acted in a way they wouldn’t have but have they told you about it? Ensure that they know they can come to you with anything and you will listen calmly and find a way to help them make it better.

Encourage healthy friendships
Although some of us will not admit it, we all have favourites when it comes to our children’s friends. We can see what kind of influence different characters have on them and how our child acts in situations with different groups of children. Encourage the friendships that you see to be positive and healthy by planning activities with them or inviting them round for dinner.

Set boundaries
Peer pressure is most commonly used when trying to influence someone’s decision to do something they know they really shouldn’t be. Things like drinking, swearing or smoking or maybe answering back to their teachers. As long as your child has clear guidance in what is right and what is wrong and you can trust them to follow these rules you can reduce the chances of peer pressure.

Develop confidence
It is important that your child feels confident enough in themselves and their own instincts to be able to say no when they feel necessary. It can be very easy to be influenced by the opinions of their social circle so make sure your little one knows how to stand up against the general consensus.