How can I get my teenager to stop hanging out with the wrong crowd and making poor decisions?

What do you do if your teenagers are making new friends and you’re not sure if that’s the kind of crowd they should be hanging out with?

The first thing you have to realize is that you can’t pick your child’s friends. And if you criticize their friends, you will see them react very strongly because they like their friends.

I remember when my son used to always go out with some groups of friends that I know are making wrong choices and getting in trouble.

I didn’t know what to do until I realized that if I don’t put an end to it now this may affect his future.

 So today I’m going to share with you what I did.

• The first thing I did was to point out to him how his behaviour and how he speaks changes whenever he goes out with this particular friend. So I told him to stop going out with them.

• The second thing I did was to enrol him in Saturday tutoring classes so that he would have something to do that would keep him out of the streets and also help him get better at school. Which helps him a great deal. 

So dear parents, If you think your children’s friends are exposing them to dangerous things like smoking, drinking alcohol or participating in wrong things in school or outside school.

I will suggest you be more upfront with this and put an end to it immediately before its too late!

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR TEENS FROM THE WRONG CROWD

1. Keep them away from the wrong friends! (Yes! stop them from seeing these friends – it is that simple) 
2. Keep them engaged in School and if they are struggling in school, get them and enroll with the Tutor to help them get better grades.
3. Get help from a school counsellor if they are finding secondary school hard.
4. Encourage healthy relationships by talking to them about what a good friend looks like. (A good friend will not make them do something bad etc…)

HERE ARE SOME OF THE RED FLAGS FOR PARENTS TO WATCH OUT FOR IN TERMS OF WHO OUR CHILDREN ARE HANGING OUT WITH

When your teenagers tell you that they are going to see their friends, you must always verify where they are and what they are up to when they are with their friends.

And if you can’t verify their whereabouts by calling them or their friends’ parents, that would be a red flag!

If your teenagers are deceiving you why they are with the same people regularly then you need to do something about it.

I would also suggest that you need to trust your child however you also need to verify what they are telling you! 

My final thought is that as one parent to another, parenting teens is hard but with lots of effort in our path and more patience we will get it right. 

And I also think instilling good morals in them when they are younger will help them to watch out for wrong influences when they become a teenager. 

 And like we all know children learn best by watching us. So let’s try to be good role models to them 😊

Happy Parenting ❤️

May God help us all in our parenting journey.