Your teen can code in JAVA, but can’t cook a meal. They have thousands of followers on their social media, but can’t make eye contact with people in real life. If these statements resonate with you, then you might need to develop a plan to prepare your teenager for adulthood.
“Adulting” is an informal term used by younger generations to express the difficulty of engaging in necessary, mundane, and responsible tasks typically associated with adulthood. There are certain life skills that every adult must have to be independent, but those skills are not something that people just know as they mature. The skills must be learned. Parents may forget that, at one time, they did not know how to fill out a job application, get a driver’s license, read a map, clean a bathroom, cook a meal, pay a bill, or do the laundry. These skills are not glamourous but they are necessary for young adults to navigate the larger world.
Vital “Adulting” Skills Parents Must Teach Teens
- Civic Responsibilities. Your teen should know how to register for and cast a vote, obtain a driver’s license and register a car with DMV, how to mail a package, and how and when to file taxes.
- Basic Safety. Your teen should know basic first aid, how and when to call for an emergency, how to check a smoke detector and use a fire extinguisher, and how to identify and avoid fraud and scams.
- Finding Shelter. To live independently, a young adult must know how to find a place to live. Finding possible apartments, calculating living costs such as utilities, and weighing the pros and cons of different locations are all skills a child must learn to effectively manage their life.
- Maintaining a Home. Your teen should know how to change air filters, figure out which lightbulbs are needed, turn off the gas and water, and unclog drains.
- Food Preparation. A child must have experience in comparing prices at the grocery store, reading nutrition labels, following a recipe, and understanding different cooking tools and pans.
- Cleaning Responsibilities. Teens should know how to use different cleaners for different household items and how often to clean. They must also have experience with laundry and how to properly care for their clothing.
- Financial Responsibilities. Teens must learn all the financial basics, including: how to read a bank statement, make a budget, pay a bill, manage subscription services, navigate online accounts, and use an ATM. They should have a full understanding of what interest rates and credit scores are, how high interest rates and debt can ruin their finances, and the impact of a bad credit rating on their future.
- Health Management: Teens need to know how to schedule appointments, understand basic health insurance information, refill a prescription, advocate for themselves with medical professionals, and track their own health information.
- Work Readiness: A part-time job can be an excellent way for teenagers to learn important job readiness skills. Before adulthood, teens need to know how to apply for a job, interview, and interact politely and respectfully with co-workers and customers.
Wherever you can, try to provide your teen real life experience handling the tasks above. If you can give your teen practice, or at least knowledge, in all of the areas listed above, you will ensure that your child will enter adulthood with success and confidence.