Friendship means a lot to the majority of people. It is the relationship that goes beyond the barriers of sex, caste, age, creed, nationality or language. Any good friend always has long-lasting and valuable control over everyone’s success in life. Real friends share endless love and concern among them. Nobody can live a happy life without having a good friend. In different life stages, all the persons should try and keep friends as they affect one’s life that can be good or bad. In contrast, having bad company may ruin one’s happiness and life, especially our children’s.
By having bad company inevitably does not check a person’s behaviour, however, it checks the fundamental personality of a person. As your children spend the majority of their time with their friends, it becomes important to recognize and distinguish between the good and the bad company.
Parents hardly spend some hours of the day with their child. Their playmates and classmates are their whole day companions, therefore, it is very important that your child has right kind of friends because the bad company of children can create many problems.
Parents’ Concerns
As parents, you face many problems and concerns regarding your child’s company. Here are some of them:
- Is your kid hiding anything from you?
- Is your daughter actually well-mannered or she is hiding something ominous behind her lovable behaviour?
- You dislike your children’s group in the neighbourhood where child mingles.
- You are doubtful of the well-mannered manner of the close friend of your daughter.
- Why do your children do things which you have firmly asked them not to do?
- Why are your children interested in watching the late-night shows on the television?
Being parents, you constantly fight with all these questions. Usually, your doubts go towards one track, whether your child is going with ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ company?
Find Details about Them
The finest way to finish these never-ending doubts about your kid’s group is to find details about them. Here are some ways through which you may discover all the facts about your child’s company.
- Positive Parenting: Develop healthy relationships with your children. Get initial details from your kids about their circle and group of good friends. However, it’s not an easy job to do. At times, communication gap grows between you as well as your child to a terrifyingly lower degree. With such situations, children usually go to their peer group or close friends to find the attention that you haven’t given to them. In case, your children are in good company, it’s good for them. However, there is a danger if your children are going with the irresponsible children.
- Open Communication with Your Child is Important: Ask your children questions regarding their close friends or group. What they want to do while having their friends together? Ask your children how their friends behave with them and also how your children respond? Do your children love to control their group or they are merely followers of a group leader? These queries will give answers about the group they are having. If you feel your child is hesitating in giving answers or trying to avoid certain queries about their friends, surely your child is in bad company.
- Ask Your Children about Their Friends: You should have up-to-date knowledge about your children’s friends and group circle. Ask your children about their friends. Try to contact their parents. If these children are studying in the same school, you will easily get all the details from school or teachers.
- Observe Their Movement: Observe the outdoor activities of your child. Observe your child’s movement. Do your children generally inform you, with which friends they are going, and at which place? Always communicate with your child when they go out. Make sure you have all contact details about parents of your child’s friends. In case your children are in bad company, they won’t disclose any details of their friends.
- Abnormal Behavior: Bad Company spoils good behaviour. Being parents, you can easily notice the negative and subtle changes in your child’s behaviour. In case you find your kid has unexpectedly become hyper, irritable, moody, is using vulgar language, become violent, feeling offensive to you and also other family members., doesn’t have any interest in normal activities, his study grades are decreasing, then this strange behaviour might be associated with his friends.
How to Influence Your Child to Make Better Choices in Life?
Amongst the most frustrating and painful things for any parents is seeing their teens in bad company and spoiling their life! Few of the options include running with the wrong crowd, avoiding homework, bunking school, taking drugs, as well as engaging in the abnormal behaviour. Here are some steps which will help you to guide your child in making better life decisions.
- Identify and Accept: Firstly, identify and accept your feelings of despair, powerlessness, panic, disappointment, and regret. You just need to accept the emotions. Don’t respond by judging your child. Hovering, blaming, yelling, distancing as well as becoming extremely controlling—or other ways through which you normally handle your nervousness—will only allow you to give more pain for managing and will damage your relationships with your children. This will make the child more resistive rather than listing to your advice. Don’t give him the chance to avoid dependability for taking key decisions. You should accept your fears and handle them rather than telling your children to deal with them.
- Study: Study, believe and modify your contribution for all negative patterns within your relationship. While dealing with your child, (you should be able to assume more responsibility and find the best possible way to guide and steer your child out the mess). you can able to assume more efficiently about the finest way of guiding and leading as well as not controlling your teenager. Directing needs you to alter your behaviour being parents rather than try and get your teenager to change. It could be the time of stopping your parts of a two-step dance. While you carefully watch your own tendencies and patterns, you may choose the dance steps which you can change.
- Take Responsibility Rather Than Taking Control: Take responsibility rather than taking control. You do not need to control your children’s options; however, you can assist in controlling their decisions. In case your teen wants to go out and come back at 3 AM early morning, you just can’t lock her in the room just as you don’t like it. Your relationship will hurt if you try to control her. However, don’t allow her to carry on bad manners. If she doesn’t follow the rules, tackle her and tell her that she has to follow the rules. Maintain clear and strong boundaries in an effective way.
- Stay Firm: Doesn’t matter what happens, you need to try and stay firm in the best possible way. You may keep the rules ready although your child is continuously breaking them. Constantly repeat that these rules are made for his wellbeing. He may finally become mature; however, there is a chance that he will waste a lot. What eventually counts is for how much time, you can stay firm in the hard times and also come back with more on the next day. Understand the truth that there are many good chances that your child can throw a lot of opportunities away in spite of all good influence. Eventually, you are required to suffer the losses as well as disappointments of dreams and hopes. However stay firm with your teen and continue moving forward together.
- Enjoy Your Relationship: Enjoy all the good times with your children. Be mature, keep your boundaries, stay firm, be clear about your end result, and enjoy with your teen. Concentrate on the positives between you and also don’t characterize your relationship. Disclose your interests, talk about politics, and also topics outside your relationship plus try to know more about your teen. Observe them through the lenses which are not fogged up with the negativity and distrust. Distinguish them from all the things they have-not only their bad options.
Conclusion
A bad friend always has a tendency of being selfish as well as rude to others. They have no hesitations in utilizing other people for their own benefits. The capability of putting faith is lost. Bad company does not have a trustworthy feeling for his/her relationships. They want to do things in their own ways. They don’t respect other people’s emotions and opinions. They always wish to get things using unfair ways. They encourage making of awful options as they just don’t care about others’ interests.
They are clever enough of criticizing and bad-mouthing others. They don’t have any moral values plus they are not linked through love and friendliness. They show little interest in your children and most probably spread the atmosphere of negative fundamentals. Actually, it is hard to identify a truly helpful acquaintance. In selecting the company for life, one should take intense care.
