Why is it so easy to fall into peer pressure?

...and he chose the path less traveled.

There is something to say about education; in the sense that it is outside the family unit. There is also something to say about personal ethics; hopefully taught in the family unit.

I did join a group. I joined sports groups and other groups with positive influences that I won't list because who cares about me, right? But I can say that I didn't fall into peer pressure as it is usually defined.

What is the definition of peer pressure ask? Well if you say, "study hard and do great in sports", we don't say peer pressure. Why is that? Peer pressure is of negative connotation isn't it.

So to fall unto peer pressure you have to be lacking something. What is that lacking? Where does it stem from?

Oh, just for you to know I come from a single mother that didn't give two cents about me and didn't care how well I performed in school. I had a brother that left the house to get the heck out. I attended a school where there were gangs and different cultures too. So why didn't I fall into peer pressure?

Well I wasn't ugly. So maybe self esteem? I wasn't the best looking guy either, but modestly a good looking kid. My mother didn't really educate me because she didn't pass the 9th grade, but she didn't do drugs or drink or smoke either.

So still there is the unanswered question, "Why do people fall unto peer pressure?".

If I saw a kid getting bullied, I didn't jump in to bully him, I would pull the kid aside and tell him to get out of there. If my friends went to do mischief I would make an excuse as to why I wouldn't go. I had lots of friends that liked to smoke, but I wouldn't do it.

So why peer pressure? Who knows!

A better question is, "how can we arm young people to think for themselves and to have the ability to reason and do the right thing". However we will always fail in certain areas because our children will be raised outside the family unit in a public setting where social interactions are more often and more prevalent than family time.

For very poor and abused children and children with parents with bad habits, being out of the family unit is better, but the opposite isn't true.

Because we all want to fit in. But why try to fit in when you were born to stand out! Anyone who can't accept you the way you are is not your friend. That's what I always told my daughters. Thank heaven they listened. :)

Human Nature....... we all want to be liked and accepted and will go to extreme length to have this in our society when we are not sure who we are yet or where we fit in.