If you’re a parent or guardian, there are important life lessons to teach your kids or younger relatives who reside with you. As a caregiver, you’ll likely want to pass down some of the same life skills your parents taught you. If your parents didn’t teach you an abundance of skills, you’ve certainly picked up some over the years that younger family members will find helpful. Here are five practical life lessons to consider teaching the youth.
1. How to Handle a Car Accident
If your younger family members are little, there’s no point in teaching them what to do after a car accident. Once they get into their early teens, however, discussing the steps required when experiencing a car accident is a topic that should be addressed. This will empower younger family members with the knowledge of how to handle a vehicle collision such as the necessary steps if they’re in a T-bone truck accident, for example.
You can advise your teenager to get their vehicle off the road quickly, if possible. Next, they should check themselves for injuries and call 911 on their smartphone to alert the police and medical personnel if needed.
Next, advise your teen to obtain the other driver’s name, insurance information, and license plate number, assuming another vehicle hit them. At this point, he or she can either drive home or call for a tow truck if needed. Finally, your child will need to call their car insurance provider to report the collision and explain the details.
2. How to Use a Credit Card
Teach your younger family members how to use credit cards wisely. While your child can get by as an adult without having a credit card, it will be challenging in many situations. Most would agree that having a credit card and knowing how to properly use it is a critical life skill for all adults.
Show you child credit cards you have and explain how they work. The most crucial credit card ownership aspect to teach the youth is to avoid carrying a monthly balance whenever possible.
Explain to your child the importance of paying off the credit card balance in full every month to avoid high interest rates, allowing him or her to also build up points that can be redeemed for things such as travel and other perks.
3. How to Open a Bank Account
Show younger family members how to open a bank account. You can open an account for your child while he or she is still underage. Banking is a vital skill that every person should know.
Explain the difference between a checking and a savings account and how savings accounts yield a higher interest rate than checking accounts. You can also demonstrate how to write a check and how to balance a checkbook. If her or she receive money from relatives for their birthday or holidays, you can help your child deposit that money into their bank account. You should also educate them about investing. It’s never too early to start teaching children about stock market basics.
4. How to Maintain a Clean House
Begin to educate your kids or younger family members at a very young age how to keep a house or apartment clean. It’s important to maintain a clean and tidy living space, so your child will know where everything is. Cleanliness also means he or she will avoid attracting excess dirt, dust and pests like ants, cockroaches, and rodents once they move out on their own when they’re older. Also, teach your child how to properly dust, vacuum and do laundry using nontoxic products. If you don’t have a washer and dryer at home, take him or her to the laundromat and teach them how to use plant-based detergent, dryer balls, and chemical free stain-fighting agents.
5. How to Properly Care for a Yard
Explain outdoor basics if you have a front or backyard to your child. This might involve raking leaves, mowing the lawn during the spring and summer months, and shoveling the driveway and walkway during the winter months.
You can also show your child how to plant flowers and grow organic fruits and veggies in a garden. If your child has an aptitude for gardening, they’ll likely enjoy watching the plants that they nurtured to bloom.
You’ll certainly enjoy passing on these adult skills to your children. By empowering the younger generation to fend for themselves, they’ll possess valuable tools to tackle many of life’s challenges in their future.
Hey Lisa and Ron,
I love love all these advice.
Cleaning and maintaining a house and learning to live in an organized space is something I have been teaching my kids since they were babies. It is even more important to me because I can clearly see that my husband wasn’t thaught them ??♀️. Sometimes I can’t believe that. And I don’t want my kids spouses going through what I have to ?
My kids are still too young for the other advice but thanks for putting them on radar ??
LOL regarding your husband not being taught. But, you are right. These chores are often delegated to girls, not boys which puts them at a disservice when they get older. This happened in our household growing up, too. Thankfully for me, Ron’s mom had all boys, so they had not choice, ha. Great job teaching your kids at at young age. They’ll be more confident as adults! Keep up the good work mama!