Adulthood is a reality of life. Most, if not all kids, look forward to the time that they grow up and wield the powers of an adult. The power to make decisions for themselves and do as they please. The power to earn and spend money at their discretion. The power to go to places and do things kids are not allowed.
Almost all of us know what that desire feels like, right? But everything changes when you’re on the brink of adulthood. When you grow up to be a young adult and you start getting what you think is more than your fair share of responsibilities in life, you start to second-guess what being an adult is really like. You used to think it was more fun to be a grown-up. Then adulting zaps you back into the harsh reality that it’s not exactly what you pictured it to be.
Essential Skills Young Adults Need to Learn
Despite the tough challenges that go with the territory, preparing for adulthood is something all teenagers should undergo. And as an adult, whether you’re a parent, a relative, a teacher, a coach, or a confidant, you have the opportunity to help set up a child’s future for the better. All you need to do is to help contribute to their person by instilling in them certain values and skills that will prove useful to them as adults.
Social Skills
1. Social Etiquette
A young adult must know how to carry and conduct himself in public and when interacting with people. It starts with good manners of course but it also involves the display of proper behavior around others.
2. Setting Boundaries
Boundaries are put in place to protect people. Setting healthy boundaries in relationships lets everyone know their limits and will prevent people from taking advantage of and pushing a person around.
Self-Care
3. Personal Grooming and Hygiene
With the pandemic looming over us, proper personal hygiene has taken center stage once again. But more than being clean, it is also important to be presentable to people. You don’t need to wear expensive clothes to be presentable. One just has to be appropriately dressed for the occasion.
4. Physical Health
It is also important for a person to acquire the right habits to maintain great physical health. Having the proper diet, enough exercise, and the right supplementation will help strengthen one’s immune system and keep sickness and disease at bay.
5. Stress Management
Aside from physical health, one has to learn to manage all the stresses that adulthood brings. Knowing how to deal with life’s challenges will prevent breakdown, anxiety, and depression. Mental health is equally important as physical health.
Self Management
6. Goal Setting and Prioritizing
Children should learn the importance of goal setting at an early age. This trains them to set their sights on a good goal and work hard to achieve it. Having a clear goal in mind lets them see the importance of setting aside things that won’t help them reach their goals and putting more importance and values on those that will.
7. Time Management
As children learn to set goals for themselves, they also learn to value how important it is to manage their time. They need to know how to prioritize important activities and events that will keep them productive but also finding the right balance for relaxation and leisure.
Financial Management
8. Budgeting
If you want a child to grow up without any financial worries, then they should be taught about money management at an early age. From learning the value of money to managing their expenses against their income, a lesson in budgeting will go a long way and serve them well as adults.
9. Savings and Investment
Budgeting isn’t the only thing that will help secure a person’s financial freedom. It’s just the beginning. Learning to set aside emergency funds, savings, and money for investments will help bring a person one step closer to financial freedom.
Home Management
10. Cleaning and Organizing
One of the things that will stand out during the transition to adulthood is when kids set off to live on their own and manage a house all by themselves. It’s great if there’s a trusted neighborhood laundromat nearby but what if there isn’t? Thus the need to be good at washing clothes, cleaning up, and other simple household chores is an important part.
11. Home Maintenance
Keeping a clean home and maintaining a functional one are two different things. There’s more to managing a home than just cleaning around the house and getting the laundry done. There are also repairs and upgrades to make to ensure that a house is in great shape throughout the year.
12. Food Preparations
Ensuring that a person gets proper nutrition is important, especially when they’re living independently. Teaching kids their way around the kitchen will help them eat healthier compared to just ordering takeout all the time.
Employment
13. Job Application and Interview
One of the things most folks don’t do with their kids is to help prepare them for career opportunities. While advice and encouragement are important, one needs to learn the actual how-tos of preparing for a job interview.
14. Professionalism and Workplace Ethics
If you want a child to succeed as an adult, he or she has to be taught how the workplace works and how important professionalism and ethics are. This is no longer pretend-play and, unfortunately, even the slightest mistake can sometimes have dire consequences.
Medical
15. First Aid Basics
A child needs to learn how to administer basic first aid during a simple emergency like treating a wound. As they grow older, they can be taught other things that can help save lives, like the Heimlich Maneuver. You would want them to be prepared for any emergency and save people involved in accidents, including themselves.
16. Health and Life Insurance
Lastly, teach kids the value of health insurance. Most people who don’t understand what it is just see it as an additional financial burden. It is to free them from any financial worry should anything bad happen to them.
If you think about it, becoming an adult is not so bad. Yes, it is challenging but as long as you prepare for it things will be manageable. It may not always go smoothly but life won’t knock you down.
