For fun: What life skills do your teenagers lack?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

omg.. this is my kid!! They don't understand what's the critical info and what's just background noise, or just getting to the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I know this is meant to be a numerous thread, but just let her make the call. You whispering in the background will just undermine her confidence. She’s getting to the point and she’ll get better with more practice. You’re not helping, if this is an example. Anyway, I either didn’t need these life skills or learned them as I needed to. I’m 48.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

My 10 and 13 yr old actually does sweep the driveway with a broom. The dustpan is probably a bit more of a challenge, but they have used those too. Gotta teach'em young.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I know this is meant to be a numerous thread, but just let her make the call. You whispering in the background will just undermine her confidence. She’s getting to the point and she’ll get better with more practice. You’re not helping, if this is an example. Anyway, I either didn’t need these life skills or learned them as I needed to. I’m 48.

Not PP, but I disagree.. teach your kids how to communicate. You don't have to get involved every time, but the first few times? I think it's helpful for them to be told how to communicate. More kids should be taught how to communicate better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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!

What a great idea! We're tackling laundry, soup to nuts, with our 10yo this summer too. She does have ADHD as well and an executive function coach suggested a visual organizer of photos showing each step that we can laminate and hang next to each machine to make it easier to remember the different functions/steps. It might even help me - these new machines are much more complicated than the ones I learned on at her age.

[Anonymous]

No one has mentioned reading a map. What do you do when your phone is lost or out of charge and you don’t know the way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned reading a map. What do you do when your phone is lost or out of charge and you don’t know the way?

Boy scout is great for learning to read a map.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one has mentioned reading a map. What do you do when your phone is lost or out of charge and you don’t know the way?

Ah. That would necessitate my learning to read a map, too. Not happening.

[Anonymous]

Can't jump over a chain link fence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Balance a checkbook.

I'm not even sure my kid knows what a checkbook is even for!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't jump over a chain link fence.

Yes, and mine can't hotwire a car. Thank god she can jump a turnstile. Why on earth would anyone NEED to jump a chain link fence if they're following rules?

[Anonymous]

I found out that my 15 yo daughter used google maps (wearing her earbuds, listening to the directions on her phone) to get to 7-11. The store is literally 2 right turns from our house...honestly I was kind of horrified since we have driven by it every single day since 2006!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't jump over a chain link fence.

Yes, and mine can't hotwire a car. Thank god she can jump a turnstile. Why on earth would anyone NEED to jump a chain link fence if they're following rules?

Because the gate is locked, of course.

[Anonymous]

This is perfect timing! DS has good basic skills, great with emails and on phone. This morning he said I wrote a driver's ed check incorrectly, referring to xx/100. He asked if it should be xx/650. I had to explain that this indicated no cents...100 pennies is? xx means? xx/100 means? To make easier, I told him he could write 00/100

BTW...he's in AP business classes. Otherwise, all is well.

[Anonymous]

Using a planner. She writes down the assignments under the day they were given, not under the day they were due. Tried to explain and show her that it would be more helpful the other way, but it hasn't sunk in yet. Lots of Cs for missing or late assignments in 7th grade. Guess we have another year to practice it before HS starts and it really starts counting.