Summer is Coming to an End.

As summer is nearing an end, you may be busy with back-to-school shopping and fitting in beach trips, but on the back of your mind you may also be thinking about some tough conversations you want to have before school starts. You may want to talk to your child about peer pressure. Below, I will give you an example of how to start this conversation. 

We have all seen cringy after school specials that depict peer pressure in a way that almost none of us can relate to. Those specials meant well but missed the mark on what actual peer pressure looks like. Sadly, our children’s friends will start to experiment with things like vaping, drinking alcohol, pornography, and using inappropriate language. I understand that thinking about our children being exposed to adult topics before they are ready makes our heads spin, but it will happen. Some people go right to denial, which leads to avoiding talking about these topics, but avoidance is not a great option. 

Starting a conversation about peer pressure can actually be quite simple. It may sound like “hey now that you are getting a bit older some of your friends will start doing things that they see or hear adults do. This means they may start to swear, vape, or even look at inappropriate things on their phones. They may ask you if you want to try their vape or do whatever they are doing, but I hope you know that you can always say no. Your friends will absolutely still like you and want to hang out even if they are into different things than you. When your friends start to do things that they should not do you may wonder if you should do them too. It's normal to feel tempted; that feeling is called peer pressure. I just wanted to bring this up because at some point we all experience peer pressure. Even adults experience it. I wanted to start a conversation with you about this because I hope that you will think about what your own morals are now before the temptation is right in front of you. I hope that you don’t do anything that you will regret later. Obviously, I’m open to talking about anything, so please come to me with any questions.”  

Remember there is no perfect way to parent, but if this blog spoke to you, please check out my website. Parenting is hard, let's do it together!