Loved ones are those that you value most in your life and while you’d hope they’d make all the right decisions when it comes to navigating through life, that isn’t always the case.
It’s important that you do what you can in order to keep your loved ones out of trouble. With that being said, there are a number of ways in which you can do this so that you can hopefully sleep a little easier at night.
Knowing you’ve done everything you can to help out a loved one is helpful, and it can provide you with that sense of comfort should that loved one continue down a negative path.
Create a safe space in your home
It’s important that when it comes to looking after your loved one and keeping them out of trouble, you create a safe space in your home.
That might be an open door that your loved one can come through at any time in the day or night, should they need your help or advice.
The environment you create for your own household and family members is also crucial and helps setup a space in which they can feel comfortable about coming to you with anything and everything that they might be feeling.
Think about that safe space and what you might be offering to your loved ones or what you’re lacking currently.
Listen actively and encourage regular communication
It’s important to listen actively and make sure that your loved ones are able to communicate regularly with you. Of course, you can’t always be there for certain loved ones, which is why it’s important to do what you can, where you can. Other family members and friends should also be helping where possible.
When you listen actively, you’re doing more than just giving advice. For some loved ones, it’s important to talk through their feelings and thoughts with no interruptions.
You should think about the regular communication you currently have with your loved ones and look at where you can improve this where necessary.
Teach important values and lessons where necessary
When it comes to keeping loved ones out of trouble, the values and lessons you teach and others provide are crucial. This is particularly the case for young and often influential children. The more you provide them with important lessons that teach them respect, love and kindness, the better they’ll likely turn out to be.
There are those who are an exception to that rule but for the most part, if you’re teaching them all the good stuff in life, then hopefully they’ll turn out alright.
Offer your support wherever possible
Offering support is something that you should look at doing where you can. There’s only so much you can give of yourself to another person, so it’s important that you’re only doing what you can when it comes to providing that direct support if they’re in need.
Whether that’s helping out with legal support or just being a helping hand as they navigate a hard time in their life and they’re turning to drink or drugs as a result.
Support is always something to be mindful of when it comes to loved ones who may be struggling or typically get into trouble. Look at the way in which you can offer support from afar or in person when needed.
Help them find healthy coping mechanisms
Healthy coping mechanisms are also something you want to put in place, especially when it comes to keeping your loved ones on the straight and narrow. Be mindful of what you can do yourself and what you might need to get in terms of assistance from professionals.
These healthy coping mechanisms often look different from one person to the next, so it’s always good to consider what works for you and your loved one or if it doesn’t, experiment with different coping mechanisms.
Don’t enable negative behaviors
At the end of the day, if you’re enabling negative behaviors, you’re not going to help fix the problem or help that loved one get to the point where they recover or take control of the issue.
Enabling behavior is never a good thing, even if it feels like fun at the time. It’s important to make sure that any enabling is quashed. If you see it happening, it’s important to try and step in if you feel it necessary.
Keeping your loved ones out of trouble is something that can be a helpful hand that they might need to keep them from making mistakes.