Sue Scheff: Teens and Peer Pressure

Visting About.com is a wealth of information regarding parenting, raising a family, health today and much more. Denise Witmer offers educational and excellent articles to help you help raise your children today.

5 Strategies for Preteens Handling Peer Pressure

By Denise Witmer

When your preteen first starts middle school they may be facing real peer pressure for the first time. Experimenting with smoking, drugs and skipping school does start at this age. This is because these recently elementary school graduates want to fit in with the older crowd. Here are some things you can do to help your preteen be prepare for when they are asked to do something that they normally wouldn’t do.

Be the first to say something. If you haven’t talked to your preteen about drugs, smoking or anything else they could be facing because they haven’t had to face that problem yet, talk to them now! Don’t avoid it until it becomes a problem or you start to see “signs”. Be proactive with your preteen.

Role play. Let your preteen be the one who offers you a cigarette. This will be an eye opening experience. Say no and keep saying no. When you preteen says, “I couldn’t say that”, ask them what they could say or do. Then role play with your preteen saying no. Practice until your preteen feels comfortable enough to do it on his own with his friends. Learn how to role play here.

Being rude is sometimes okay. Let your teenager know it is okay to avoid people who are trying to get him to do something he does not want to do, even if it is an old friend.

Let them make you the scape-goat. Tell your preteen that there is nothing wrong with using you as an excuse. Saying, “My mom would be so mad!” to a friend who is trying to get them to smoke is a perfectly good enough excuse to get out of the situation.

Be available. Be ready and available should they need to come to you with questions or thoughts on a situation. Even if your teen didn’t make the right choices, you can help them come up with a better solution the next time the situation arises.

Learn more: http://parentingteens.about.com/cs/peerpressure/a/preteenspeer.htm

Sue Scheff: Connect with Your Teens through Pop Culture

I was forwarded this fantastic website/Blog that can has some really great information on today’s teens through pop-culture! Learning about today’s trends, hot items, great books and more!

Visit: http://connectwithyourteens.blogspot.com/ and see what Jennifer is talking about today!

Sue Scheff: Teaching Your Teen to Drive Safely

Source: Safe Teen Driving Club

OK. You've probably been driving for 25+ years. You can do a great job tutoring your child as she learns to get the feel of the car...how to navigate through traffic, etc. But many parents aren't up to date on the Graduated Driver Licensing laws that affect both teens and parents. Further, the risk factors that lead to crashes are manageable -- if you know what they are, and how to avoid them. These articles will help you get a head start in teaching your teenager how to drive.

Learning to Drive: A Guide for Parents
Unsafe Driving Behaviors to Watch for with Your Teen
Cell Phones - A Leading Cause of Driver Distraction
Street Wise On-Line Driving Game from Daimler Chysler
Is Your Teen Ready to Drive?

Further, there are six major challenges new drivers must face. Not only do they need to understand what they are...they need to practice each one. Perhaps the only advanced collision avoidance program that addresses each of these is the teenSMART training program. It's a complete package of DVD, CD's and workbooks that parents and teens study together -- including spending substantial hours behind the wheel to put theory into practice. It can save up to $1000 in insurance premiums with select insurance carriers over the teen's driving history. But more important, it can reduce the likelihood of a crash by 30 to 70 percent! You can find more about teenSMART® here.