8 life skills teenagers need to learn while stuck at home

I have a teen and a preteen and one of the things we are doing is learning life skills. Something that isn’t taught in schools. I am glad we have this time at home during Rona to get some of these skills in order. You don’t realize how much your kids don’t know until they are at home with you and they are put into a situation where they need to think quick. They don’t know how to do a lot of the things that come naturally to us. Here are 8 life skills teenagers need to learn while stuck at home.

Life skills teenagers need to learn while stuck at home

1. How to write a proper email. We know how to do this but our kids don’t. I hired my son to work with me for an hour a day to help him learn these skills. I sat him down and said ok I need you to write an email how do you start he said…tell them what you want. No sir! You say hello or depending on the content of the email you say Happy Thursday. Make sure you call the person by their name in the email and make sure you start with a lead-in. Almost like writing a letter (which they don’t do that either) Indeed has some great tips on how to write a professional email. I wanted to pitch a company and I had my son write the email first in a word document and then I checked it. I gave him a sample of one that I wrote so that he could follow that.
2. How to handle life disappointments. With Rona present these kids are disappointed that they can’t see their friends, go to school, or go anywhere. We as adults know how to handle stuff but these kids don’t. I teach my kids to look at the good in things find the good and let’s hold on to that. Life will be a big bowl of disappointments but it’s how you handle them that gets you on the other side.
3. How to cook simple stuff. I didn’t learn to cook until college but my kids will learn now how to put on simple things. I told my son when he gets on his own he can’t eat out daily because that will cost him and what if something happens and he can’t go outside to eat. He will have to learn how to whip up something on his own. My son can cook eggs, salmon, basically any breakfast item, rice, and tacos. I am slowly teaching him how to cook other things but he can get by on that stuff for now.
4. How to handle common household problems. My lights in the room went off a few weeks ago. I went downstairs to turn it on and thought hmmm he needs to learn what a breaker box is and how to flip the switch (not the one on tik tok) to turn the light on. If the power went out does he know how to light a candle? How about open the garage to get out if the power went out (I learned that just a few years ago because I never grew up with a garage) What about if the water doesn’t work? Do they know how to handle the situation or call the water company? This brings us to the next point…..
5. Learning how to talk on the phone. My daughter has this thing when you call her she doesn’t say hello. She will just breathe heavily like a serial killer. At first, I was like why do you do that and then I realized she didn’t know how to talk on the phone because all her and her friends do is talk on Roblox or text. They got on the phone with their grandma a few weeks ago and I had to coach them through what to say.  If they need to call for a phone interview I can’t imagine how that will go. Make sure you teach them by having them mock call someone or each other.
6. Personal grooming. They know how to bath well let me speak for my kids they know how to take a duck bath. Sometimes they smell and I make them go back in the bathroom and reshower. I also want my kids to learn how to wash their face and lotion up at night. My daughter has craters on her face so I am teaching her to wash daily and put something on her face and most nice she forgets. When she forgets her face gets worse. My daughter will also be learning about the period and she needs to learn how to throw away her pad properly and learn how to wash so she doesn’t smell like a fish.
7. Health and basic first aid. My son has allergies and tries to use that to his advantage a lot of times but I am teaching him how to manage it. He needs to know what to look for in certain areas. What did you do to trigger the allergies? What types of medicines are you supposed to take? We go over the basic meds in my cabinet so he knows what Tylenol is, what Advil is, etc. He needs to know the basic knowledge of over the counter meds like dayquill, or Zyrtec and how they look.  Get your teen to learn basic first aid skills like how to clean a wound, use bandages, and other first aid in case of medical emergencies, which may enable him to save a life, should such a situation arise in the future. My son and I will be taking a CPR class also to make sure we know that too.
8. Navigational skills. Our phones are great but sometimes you need to know how to learn your whereabouts without a phone. I asked my son one day to get me home a route that we take daily and he only knew to a certain point. I drive this route daily and he could not tell me how to get all the way home. They also need to learn landmarks so you don’t go in circles if you are lost and have no phones. Which way is north, south, etc.

So there you go. Here are some bonus things they can learn also

• How to start a car and jump start it if the battery is dead
• How to manage money
• How to grocery shop (before Rona I had my son going into the store to pick up things so he can learn how to find stuff and pay for it)
• How to stay safe (pay attention to your surroundings. I jumped my son in the hallway for his money one time and he thought I was downstairs when I just talked to him 5 min earlier in his room. I was like did you hear me go downstairs I was in the hallway the entire time)
• How to set goals
• How to manage their time
• How to deal with anger
• Manners (my gawd do these kids need that these days)

What can you add to the list?