Some of you have already sent your teens off for another challenging school year. The rest of us are not far behind, and our kids will soon be back to school days. With school days comes another important event: an even bigger increase in peer pressure.

Peer pressure grows during the school year, since it comes from many more sources, and kids spend more time together in the setting where it counts most. Suddenly, kids their age are all that matters. Your opinion means nothing after all, what do you know being so old?

This phenomenon will be responsible for all kinds of new problems and a rerun of the old ones. Those jeans your daughter just begged for, you know, the ones you mortgaged your house for. They were the greatest things in the world yesterday, but today, the 'group' has decided -in its ultimate wisdom- they are lame, un-cool, and are not in any way shape or form the thing to wear. They have become those "wouldn't-be-caught-dead-in-them jeans". I know, I know, they're brand new. You, as a parent, must deal with this problem without loosing your mind.

Try to remember when your mom made you wear that stupid hat to keep your ears warm, or those plaid pants that were just horrible. It is a tough thing to feel everyone is laughing at you. Truth is, all the other kids are worried about what is wrong with them and are too worried to even notice you. But peer pressure makes you believe you must be accepted.

It demonstrates itself in many ways-some dangerous and life changing, such as using drugs or having sex. It is evident in small ways also. In my grandson's small town, many grades are housed in the same school building. His 8-year-old brother will attend the same place as the 13-year-old. This is "bad.' Steve, the 13-year-old, has told his brother, his mother, his father, and everyone who will listen to him, the same thing: Kris may not talk to him if he sees him, since that would be embarrassing to him when he is with his friends.

These brothers get along great at home, and it is only peer pressure that makes him say such a thing but, alas, it will be of no matter because Kris, the more devilish of the two, will no doubt seek out Steve and make a great production of saying "hi." This time it may backfire.

The point is that peer pressure can be responsible for many things in your teen's life. Try to understand as with the "out of style jeans", but let your teen buy the next pair. Encourage good value, like making the brothers act with decency toward each other, but let them work out the school thing. Only step in and offer your own parent pressure" if the behavior is of vital importance to safety and health. Step back in time and recall how you felt when everyone in the entire world but you had stereo. Remember? Now you're ready to deal with peer pressure.

Credits: Jo Ann Wentzel