The usual thing that comes to mind when peer pressure is mentioned, is youth/teen peer pressure because this is the mostly popularized type of peer pressure.
But in our everyday life even as married people we experience peer pressure in different forms and from different groups of people around us.
More often than not women are the victims of such pressures because women are more likely to 'clique up' where ever they find themselves.
Peer pressure in marriage may range from pressure to join a certain group, clique or association in your neighborhood, pressure to conform to certain standards existing within a clique or maintain certain perceived social standards, to pressure from peers to run your home in a particular way or raise your kids up in a perceived better way.
For instance, if in a neighborhood reading group five out of seven women say "oh I will never allow my husband do that" The other two may begin to think that maybe they have been making a mistake all along in allowing in the same things even though it has never been a source of squabble of any kind between them and their husbands.
The truth is that what works for one home may not work for another. A woman may resort to nagging in other to get her husband to do what she considers "the right thing" basically because that's what her friends and their families are doing. In doing this, she may forget to consider their peculiar circumstances and in turn anger her husband, who may not react to such suggestions the way the other woman's husband reacted to it.
Your child does not have to go to a particular private school, because that's where all the supposedly rich kids go to and each year the fees are hiked up you squeeze your blood to pay it, because it can not be said that you withdrew your child. Even though if you look around you will find good schools that may not cost as much and that may even give more attention to your child's welfare.
That is what I call pressure, it consistently puts you in competition with others even when you don't know it and makes you want to live up to accepted standards.
Another type of peer pressure exist in the "high class world", funny enough this craze follows a lot of women into their homes. This is the type of pressure that makes you think less of yourself if at the moment you cannot wear the type of bags in vogue or type of hair everyone is wearing or even makes you avoid being seen at some eateries (because it's low classed), even if they serve your favorite dish.
Negative Peer pressure makes you deny yourself, while trying to live your life from other peoples perspective and it is no respecter of age
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I saw it while in Law School, girls borrowed family and friend's cars to come to school just to measure up to standards their cliques have set. Some of these girls have gone ahead to marry and if they didn't check it, they may probably have to borrow clothes to attend functions just because they do not want to fall behind other women.
My two pence is find out what rocks your family boat, you can have friends but never let them affect you in this manner, refuse to be pressured into conforming to what others think is the standard. Always define your own standards.
