Before you know it, your children are all grown up, ready to make their mark in our global village. Parenting is a full-time job given to us with a vague job description.
By the time your teen leaves home, you want to ensure they are ready to live independently, nurture positive relationships and make a positive impact on the world. Take a moment to run down a checklist of essential life skills your teen will require to be successful in the modern world.
1. How to manage time
Different projects, pressing deadlines and to-do-lists that seem to get longer each day will be in your teens foreseeable future. To manage time, teach your child to make concrete decisions that structure, protect and adjust their time in an ever-changing environment. Teach them to: -Think realistically about time by understanding it as a limited resource. -Design and organise goals, plans, schedules and tasks to effectively use the time. -Monitor the use of time while performing activities and adjusting to interruptions and change of priorities. Spending a little time learning about time-management techniques will have a huge benefit on your teen’s schooling career and beyond.
2. How to be an efficient lifelong learner
No person has reached the finish line of mastering a skill. It is healthy to walk through life with a curious mind and make deeper inquiries about things around us. Learning is unavoidable and happens all the time. However, lifelong learning is about fostering a curious mind, creating and maintaining a positive attitude to learning. It is an effective way for your teen to build on their personal and professional growth. Being a lifelong learner can enhance their understanding of the world and provide them with more opportunities to improve their quality of life.
3. How to stick to a budget
Money may not be the most important thing in life, but it certainly is vital for a comfortable life. That is why financial discipline is an important skill to learn as a teenager. To motivate your child to save, and even invest in something, will cultivate an understanding that the money they receive is directly tied to the work they do. If you have a good foundation about financial knowledge, the lessons will begin to sink in and assist your child as an adult to make financially sound decisions.
4. How to stay safe and be mindful of security
It is important for your teen to socialise at a young age but have the sense of the safety of an environment. Teaching them safety measures that will keep them out of harm’s way is important for their future life. Have open and honest conversations with them about crime and the serious security risks they could face. Explain the lengths of deception predators will use to ensnare their victims. In the digital space, use parental control and antivirus applications to secure their use of technology.
5. How to handle emergencies
The odds that you and your child will be part of a major disaster are incredibly slim, but just in case the unthinkable happens, ensure your child makes it out safely by knowing the basics. Teach them the three outs: get out, hide out, or take them out. Getting out, means getting away from the danger that is occurring at that specific moment. If you are not able to run away, you should hide out. Barricade yourself in a place where the danger cannot reach you and the third option is to take the danger out. Teach your child to defend themself by any means necessary to be safe. Know all emergency numbers not only of immediate family but also the police, emergency services, fire brigade, and expert confidants to assist them in their hour of need.
6. How to prepare meals and eat well
Teens, more so those residing in urban areas, may know how to fry an egg and make popcorn. However, they are just a few short years away from becoming independent adults, where wise food choices will be important. From an early age in life make your children part of your cooking routine. Teach them how to plan a meal, shop for ingredients, and cook a delicious meal. They will appreciate how to cook and eat nutritiously when they are no longer spending your dime and need to fend for themselves.
7. Cleanliness
Cleanliness is next to godliness. First, being clean is necessary to function socially. Being able to deal with other people is an essential skill for teens and adults alike, and being hygienic is good manners. Secondly, good hygiene habits are important for being a responsible adult. It is even more important as the teen body grows. Living in a clean environment and looking after one’s body, cooking food in a clean kitchen, having skills to do the laundry and sanitize one’s environment is fostering healthy habits that are important to live a healthy and responsible life.
8. How to give generously
There is no better way to teach generosity than to model it. Parents should plant the seeds of generosity. Raising a generous teen is synonymous with raising an empathetic teen. It takes intentional practices like encouraging, giving, teaching important habits of how to best care for others. It nurtures a good heart.
9. How to cultivate good relationships
Parents' job is to prepare their children to become fully independent and functioning adults. Being a clear-sighted, compassionate mentor is way more important than being your teen’s friend. What they need is your moral leadership to the road of fostering good relationships. A good relationship is based on trust, security and love. Nurturing these values are essential to having a healthy relationship with many people around them. You are your teen’s first teacher and the relationship you have with them is the basis of their emotional and social development. Helping teens learn to navigate their relationships and develop and maintain healthy relationships of one’s own is the best gift you can give your teenager.
Prioritising time and effort to nurture these values and skills in your teenagers can give you comfort that they will be better placed to successfully navigate the challenges of our modern world.
The author is a Counsellor at Makini Schools
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