Skills Every Teen Should Learn

Cleaning

By Melissa Gaskill for Woman’s Day

If your teens are like mine, they think kitchens and bathrooms magically clean themselves. Before you foist this delusional thinking on future roommates (and eventual spouses!), introduce your teens to the broom, dustpan, mop and toilet bowl brush. Their weekly chores should involve each one.

Doing Chores

Just remember that knowing a skill and using it in their own domain are two different things. While every kid should have chores, don’t spend the high school years waging war over your teen’s messy room. Better to close your eyes to a little chaos in there (as long as she’s pulling her weight with her other chores around the house) and keep the lines of communication open for more important issues.

Car Maintenance

Boys today are more likely to spend time texting friends than hunched over a car engine. But teens (girls included) need to know the basics of caring for their ride: how to check the oil and tire pressure, and follow a basic maintenance schedule. Melissa Mieras of San Antonio says her husband, Tom, taught their three sons by doing those things — and explaining it all as he went along — with the boys around.

Laundry

Find a way to get your teens and their dirty clothes into the laundry room (if you have to bribe them with a movie, so be it). Now go over the basics: how to read labels, how to sort clothes by color and temperature, which detergent to use and how much, how to make sense of washer/dryer settings. Of course, the best way for teens to acquire this, or any skill, for that matter, is practice.

Making Appointments

Give your teen a simple appointment calendar with the names and numbers of doctors, dentists and other important providers recorded in the address book section (or posted on a bulletin board). Be sure to remind him that he can’t be in two places at once, and to allow time for travel to and from appointments.

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Travel Tutorial

Austin, TX mom MaryPat Baringer says her kids made their own travel arrangements for college visits. This helped them learn good communication skills, and gave them experience in managing minor difficulties such as long layovers and missed connections. “Kids learn more when things don’t go smoothly,” says MaryPat.

Cooking

Along with a few basics — perhaps scrambling eggs and making pasta — teach your teen to prepare a few of his favorite meals. Have him pick a menu and make a list of needed ingredients, then take him shopping. Back at home, coach him through the preparation from start to finish. Don’t forget to include cleanup and safe storage of leftovers.

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Managing Money

If your teens don’t have a bank account, make sure they open one. Then help them add up their expenses — from the slice of pizza they grab after school to movies on the weekend to prom fees — and determine a monthly budget they can stick with.

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