What do you think your teen would do if you were not watching? Many parents hope their teens would make good decisions, but what do you think would really happen?

Dateline recently gave a handful of parents the opportunity to watch their teen make decisions about a variety of different issues. During the course of the show, a group of teens were given the opportunity to cheat to get on what they thought was a TV show. As they observed the teens, the parents saw how difficult it was for their teens to stand up to the growing pressure to cheat.

When talking with your teen about good decision making it is important to remember two ideas:

• Guide: Help your teen think back through their decision making process and give them additional suggestions of how they could have made a different decision.
• Model: Let your teen see you make good decisions in difficult situations. Go a step further and explain your decision making process to them and ask what decision they would have made

Making good decisions in difficult situations becomes easier when the teen is actively practicing good decision making all along.