This is the last post in a series of blog posts on what skills children should learn before they leave their parents’ home and go out into the real world.
Independent Living Skills
Some children don’t get married after leaving your home. There are skills they need to know to be independent and on their own. It is harder if parents don’t have these skills to teach them to your children. You can learn together!
Home mainte
nance – Teach children that it’s easier to keep something clean if it is cleaned on a regular basis versus cleaning it once a month. Our children have daily, weekly, and monthly household chores. To make the bathroom chores easier and quicker, we assign each child a part of the bathroom to clean – one cleans the tub, one cleans the floor, one cleans the sink, one cleans the toilet and one cleans the mirrors.
Laundry – Each child is assigned a laundry day. He or she is responsible for making sure we wash at least 2 loads a day. Starting the washing machine, moving it into the dryer, and taking it out of the dryer for the other family members to fold and put away are the main things that have to get done.
Cooking – Our older children are responsible for preparing supper while the younger ones are preparing breakfast and lunch. I know one mom who assigned her 16 year old the responsibility of preparing meals for the family for a year, including shopping for groceries.
Car maintenance – As soon as our oldest was old enough to drive, he started helping out with changing oil in our vehicles and rotating tires. This is something girls don’t normally like to do but it is important the fact that they know it should be done is what’s important. They can pay to have someone to do it instead.
Sewing – It’s not just for girls! Our boys were in Scouts and they had to learn to sew a button and patches. They are involved in Civil Air Patrol now so they are responsible for hemming their pants when necessary. Boys can pay someone to do this if they don’t like doing it.
Give me some feedback on what else you have your kids doing or have done.
I hope you enjoyed my series of posts on what skills children before leaving the nest. If you missed my previous posts, here they are:
- Skills Children Need Before Leaving the Nest: Communication
- Skills Children Need Before Leaving the Nest: Literacy
- Skills Children Need Before Leaving the Nest: Health
photo credit: adotjdotsmith 
photo credit: jeffwilcox
Mimi,
Larry Burkett has a great series to use for kids to teach them about home and car maintenance. It is called How Things Work. Really great!
Tara
That's great info. I love his resources.
So true. I think another thing to mention is that as they get older, they need to become more responsible for seeing what needs to be done and doing it rather than just following a list of chores. I hadn't thought about this until recently but realized it's another step in promoting independence.
The only thing we haven't taught are teen yet was car maintenance and that will come in the next couple years. It's going to be sad when he flies the coop and goes on his own. He will be the first of three. I found your series very interesting.
That's a good thought. Do you have any ideas on how to empower kids to realize when things need to get done?
Thanks Stacie! I didn't realize car maintenance was important until after I was on my own.
Thanks Tara, I'll have to look into that!
I am RIGHT here with you in this. I'm not afraid to grab a screwdriver and put together a piece of furniture, or take apart a vacuum cleaner, or change the solenoid on a '68 Ford Mustang. I've invested in manuals when necessary, but have learned to do a lot of things on my own. I want my girls to know basics of any kind of home maintenance, home keeping, car maintenance and how to BUDGET and PAY BILLS…
that's great of you to post. but I've left the nest without even knowing how to sew, I didn't know that's just bad…
that's great of you to post. but I've left the nest without even knowing how to sew, I didn't know that's just bad…