What to do if Your Child Hanging Out with the Wrong Crowd

You've noticed that you child is hanging out with some new people lately and your child is starting to act differently towards you. Your child has an attitude and doesn't do what you tell your child to do. Perhaps that new kid that your child is hanging out with is a bad influence on your child. The first thing that you will want to do is invite that child over to your house for the night to see what that child does and how the child acts. Does that child have respect for you? Does that child have respect for his or her own parents?

Pay attention to see if that child swears, if that child says thank you or please and see how that child communicates with his or her parents. If the child doesn't call the parents at all to check in or tell the parents anything perhaps there is some type of communication problem. If that child is swearing and giving you an attitude that child does the same thing to his or her parents and that child might be a bad influence on your own child.

The next thing you might want to do is ask your child questions about the friend. Perhaps that friends parents are in the middle of a divorce and the child is going through some rough times. Maybe that child's parents are never home and simply are too busy to notice how their own child is acting. You can invite the child over more and help influence your child's friends. If your child's friends respect you and feel like you are a good person that they could talk to, they are less likely to have your child skip school with them or get involved in negative things because they are afraid of how you will look at them next time you see them.

You can also call the parents and see how they act. Perhaps the parents are not exactly the best parents in the world and they are teaching the child bad things. There's only so much that you can do. If you know there is something terribly wrong with the situation there's a time when you should wash your hands of it and keep your child away from this person. Sometimes this will cause your child to sneak around and see his or her friend and lie to you about it. It's a hard thing to go through but eventually it will all work out.