Cultivating healthy friendships in the adolescent and teenage years is vital to stable mental well being. It’s important for kids to have healthy friendships, when kids are constantly surrounded by negativity, there is no room for growth or even happiness.

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As a parent, be aware of who your child’s friends are. Especially if your children are younger. When a relationship is toxic there are signs that will show. Such as a child seeming more withdrawn or with a lower self esteem than usual. If a child has gotten increasingly quiet and even jumpy or fearful, these can all be signs that a relationship isn’t harmful.

In a toxic relationship, the other child is more often then not very demeaning and cruel to the other child. They belittle, bring down the self esteem of and stress out their friend. They can also sometimes behave in a physically aggressive manner.

When handling a toxic friendship, take it slowly. Talk with your child, get to know what they think and feel before acting. Then together, form a plan. Completely ripping a child away from friend causes trauma, it’s best to talk a lot about how they feel about the situation, and then act. Some good ways of handling an unhealthy situation is to take a step back from the friendship for the present time. Consider allowing your child to see them less or to take a break from hanging out after school for several weeks.

Often with toxic friends their behavior has more to do with an unstable home life or a current rough circumstance than it has anything to do with your child. When handled with grace, it’s a situation that can usually be resolved with a break. However, in some circumstances it may be best just to gradually stop hanging out with the toxic friend entirely.