Talk to your kids about good and bad popularity
Everyone wants to be popular and well liked. But this seems to be especially important to kids and teenagers. Their self scrutiny is at its most intense and they have to navigate the complicated social hierarchies at school.
But there is a difference between good popularity and bad popularity and it is up to us parents to teach them the difference.
Good popularity is those who are genuinely liked by others because they are nice to people and treat others well.
Bad popularity is those who are leaders of a group because people are afraid to cross them. People don’t necessarily like them but they follow them because they don’t want to get on their bad side.
As parents, we have to emphasize this difference at an early age and talk to them often about how they are treating others and how they see others being treated.
If kids are taught to recognize the difference early on, they will be less likely to want to follow the kids who aren’t treating others well even if they see them as powerful.
Teach your kids that if they want to be well liked by their peers, to be kind to others. To make people feel special and important. People will be drawn to them and want to spend time with them, and they will attract friends naturally.