Raising kids can be a wonderful and rewarding experience.
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It can warm your heart watching your children learn and grow and experience the world. It can also be a bit stressful. After all, sending your kids off into the world is like watching your heart roam around. Part of the goal in raising children is to help them grow into self-sufficient adults.
To do that, you have to slowly give them more and more age-appropriate freedoms. A lot of that requires giving them trust as well and learning what your child is ready for. There are several essential life skills that children should develop for personal and professional success. As their parents, you can begin to introduce these skills over time and let them practice. Keep reading to learn about a few life skills your kids can’t do without.
1. Financial Literacy
Financial literacy is an important skill for all adults to have. It’s also a skill set many adults struggle with because it’s not always taught in school. If you can set your kids up for success in this area, it will greatly impact their future. So what is financial literacy? It’s the ability to understand and manage one's personal finances effectively, including budgeting, saving, investing, and making informed financial decisions.
There are three main things you can do with money: spend it, save it, and give it. Starting early with financial literacy for kids can set them on a path for wealth. It can also teach them how to care for themselves when you aren’t there. If they learn how to manage money at home, maybe when they’re on their own they won’t struggle as much.
Setting up a bank account and budget for your kids early is a way to help with this. There are several banks that offer a kid’s debit card. These are often tied to an app on a parent’s phone for oversight. It’s a good way to let them practice spending within their means.
2. Communication
Another area that is essential to life is learning how to be an effective communicator. In today’s world of smartphones and social media, some might think communication is easier than ever. In some aspects, that’s true. But really what’s easier is finding and staying in touch with people. Deep communication is lost in many ways unless it’s fostered.
With texting or chatting online, what can be lost is face-to-face connection. Without practicing communication, it can be hard to confront difficult situations. It’s often easier to hide behind a keyboard. Many kids and even young adults just avoid conflict entirely, but that isn’t healthy. Teaching your child how to look someone in the eye and have a difficult discussion is important.
It can be hard to teach this skill, but you can start by encouraging your child to speak up for themselves. Let them order their food at restaurants and teach them to say please and thank. When you’re upset with something they did or if you want to praise them, have that conversation in person. Be a good example. Screens off, phones down, connection is where it’s at. You’ll be preparing them for a more-connected life.
3. Problem-Solving
As a parent, you often hate seeing your kiddo upset or struggling. You likely want to jump in and just fix the problem for them. If you constantly do that though, they won’t learn to trust and rely on themselves. They need to learn how to be resilient and problem solve.
This, of course, should be age appropriate. Think about baby-proofing your home. In the beginning, you have gates, cabinet locks, light socket covers, and more. As they go from crawling to walking to running to preschool, those protectors aren’t needed as much. They grow, and you teach them. They eventually understand why it’s important not to stick their tongue in the outlets on the wall.
With problem-solving, ease back as they age and mature. When they’re little, it might look like letting them make a mess while learning to use a fork. Your kindergartener might need to learn how to pick out clothes or figure out the toothpaste. Your middle schooler needs to learn to talk to the coach himself. Be there to guide and teach, but let them take ownership.
This can be hard because, in some cases, your child might fail. But oftentimes those failures and setbacks are the greatest teachers. In guiding them, you can help make sure the failures aren’t too big. And you can try to keep them from having consequences that alter their lives forever.
4. Adaptability
Problem solving is directly related to being adaptable. If there’s one thing in life that’s constant, it’s change. That can be a challenge for adults and kids alike. And while sudden changes can rock your world, teaching your kids how to roll with the punches is important. You’ve likely experienced last minute changes that were hard, but you have to adapt and overcome them to continue moving forward.
Being able to adapt and move on without being paralyzed with anxiety and stress is crucial in life. This can start early by not fixing everything for them. Say your second grader had a playdate canceled at the last minute. She can be sad and hurt, but talk to her and let her know sometimes this happens. She might worry it will always happen, but you can point to all the times the plans went as expected.
Another way to teach this is to not fall apart yourself. Holiday plans, for example, shift quickly when your house comes down with the flu. Instead of locking yourself in your room crying and canceling the holidays all together, find a new way to celebrate. Acknowledge that you’re sad because the tradition changed and you miss seeing your extended family. Then come up with a new plan like drinking hot cocoa, watching movies, and opening presents together in your pjs.
Set an Example
When raising kids and trying to teach them life skills, you might realize there are some things you could work on too. That’s okay. Learning and growing yourself while parenting teaches your child a lot too. While teaching and guiding is important, modeling is paramount.
You can tell your teenager to budget and save until you’re blue in the face. But if you’re maxing out credit cards and impulse buying, they see that too. And it can be hard to believe and trust what you’re saying if your actions don’t match up. Take a look in the mirror, learn with your child, and guide them. Start early and enjoy the process of watching them grow into capable adults.
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