For fun: What life skills do your teenagers lack?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My teen has ADHD and his problem is planning ahead.

This is not an ADHD thing. This is normal.

Come on, PP-- it's both. It's hard for a lot of people, especially teens, but much harder for people with ADHD.

[Anonymous]

Interestingly, a lot of these things are no longer useful life skills, or soon won't be, or will only be in limited circumstances. I don't know how to use a mimeograph machine, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly, a lot of these things are no longer useful life skills, or soon won't be, or will only be in limited circumstances. I don't know how to use a mimeograph machine, either.

Dishes? Laundry, Taxes? Cooking? Yeah totally obsolete

[Anonymous]

My less than angelic teens have all of these life skills. I feel a little bit better today. They still make poor choices, but at least at some point they will have life skills to fall back on.

[Anonymous]

Balance a checkbook.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how to use a mimeograph machine, either.

You never did this in school? Apparently, you missed out on an important childhood experience. You crank the machine with a handle on the side, then you hold the paper copies up to your nose and smell them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly, a lot of these things are no longer useful life skills, or soon won't be, or will only be in limited circumstances. I don't know how to use a mimeograph machine, either.

Dishes? Laundry, Taxes? Cooking? Yeah totally obsolete

With tax preparation software, doing your taxes actually is rather obsolete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly, a lot of these things are no longer useful life skills, or soon won't be, or will only be in limited circumstances. I don't know how to use a mimeograph machine, either.

Dishes? Laundry, Taxes? Cooking? Yeah totally obsolete

With tax preparation software, doing your taxes actually is rather obsolete.

Filing them by the deadline is not

[Anonymous]

My daughter doesn't really know how to make phone calls. She can call me of course, but she doesn't know how to call a store or company - she has no sense of what information they need.

Them: Skate Shop
Her: Hi, um this is Lily, I take Skate with Sarah on Saturdays
Me, whispering: they don't care
Her: and um I was just wondering if my friend and I want to do public skate tomorrow after the mall and a snack, what time does public skate start?

She can't extrapolate to just ask "hi, what time does public skate start?" There are 1000 kids taking lessons - they don't care who she is or whether she takes any.

[Anonymous]

i love this thread. keep them coming!

[Anonymous]

Love this thread! This summer I am hosting a life skills 'camp' for both my DS (11 and 7). For the 11 year old he will be learning how to do laundry (start to finish, including ironing and putting away). At the end of the summer he will also go through the closet organization/purging process with me as we get ready for back-to-school. Also going to work on rudimentary money management (starting them both on allowance this week). Finally, he starts middle school this year, so I am going to work on basic time management: planning for the week, budgeting time for bigger projects, and getting everything packed and ready-to-go the night before.

My younger son will have an age-appropriate version of the above, but I'll most likely replace time management with showing him how to dust/clean his room.

That said, making note of all the items being reported in this thread and adding to my own list. Keep them coming!

[Anonymous]

If you want to really have fun, ask your Tween or Teen to swipe a driveway with a classic broom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to really have fun, ask your Tween or Teen to swipe a driveway with a classic broom.

For extra bonus points and laughs give them a dust pan at the end and ask them to get the little pile of dirt on the dust pan.
Hours of fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So much for my ADHD child. Namely organization and awareness. Organization is a must in life, and awareness is a must for important things like driving. Both worry me a lot.

Again normal.

I'm an adult without ADHD and am not organized. I bet I too could go to a doctor and get some amphetamines!

Please don't contribute to misinformation about ADHD! Either you actually have ADHD; or you simply have no idea how worse off than you ADHD people can be! My husband has been let go multiple times from jobs because he could not meet deadlines because of his untreated ADHD. My son has incredible problems with procrastination and time management, for which he receives extra time and accommodations in school. Before he was medicated, he was failing in school. Now with medication, he gets straight As.

Educate yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't know how to use a mimeograph machine, either.

You never did this in school? Apparently, you missed out on an important childhood experience. You crank the machine with a handle on the side, then you hold the paper copies up to your nose and smell them.

What's a mimeograph machine?