What Do You Do When Your Child Is Being Led Astray By Peer Pressure?

Whenever a child does something illegal, unethical or immoral, people first blame parents. Sometimes parents do all they can but just dont see the signs that their child is being influenced by individuals outside of the home. Children want to fit in, and sometimes they have one personality for family members and another one for their friends, in order to be liked or accepted. How can you tell when your child may be living a secret life? Should you go through their bedroom, read their papers, go through their computer, examine their cell phone text messages? How do you have that discussion about peer pressure without lecturing or being overly judgemental? Are you approachable if your child needs to admit to having made a serious mistake?