Essential life skills for every teen.

When it comes to educating kids, parents think their onus ends at finding the best possible school for them.  What we as parents however forget that there are some lessons of life that can be administered to them only by us. Many look down  upon skills like cooking, cleaning up and doing laundry as unnecessary burden on the kids, specially when it comes to boys. The result is when a kid steps out to be on his own, he is in a complete mess.
In this post we come out with a list of ten such

important lessons of life that every teenager

should have atleast a working knowledge of.

Cooking a simple meal - One may not train a child to be the next master chef but it is imperative to teach him at least how to make a sandwich or toast a bread or brew a cup of tea. He should at least be able to put something in his hungry stomach when parents are not around.

Get ready for school - Most mothers will remind their children of their pending assignments, arrange their routine, fill their bottles. We fail to realize that we are making them dependent for simple chores which he is capable of doing himself.

Wake themselves up - Every teenager should be able to wake himself up by the help of an alarm clock. This is a very necessary skill he/she should  master when he is in high school.

Do his laundry  - He must be able to do his laundry,  take care of his clothes and other stuff.  No one will  do this for him when he is out camping or on some excursion.

Advocate for themselves  - The kid should be able to advocate for himself. While it may be easier and even more effective at first ,that parents advocate for their kids, in the long run it will help them if they have this skill mastered.

Be proactive  - He should be groomed to be proactive to take up tasks enthusiastically.This will not only boost his confidence but also build his leadership skills.

Talk to strangers  - It is our duty to show them the difference  between those creepy strangers and the harmless ones.  He should be able to strike a conversation with strangers as we all know effective communication skills are very important to climb the ladder of success.

Take public transport - A child in his late teens should be able to use public transport and be able to commute to and fro  from the known destinations.

When we encourage our children to be self reliant, we are ushering him towards leadership. It may feel emotionally bloating, to hear continuous string of 'ma' , but it will be best for him to train him to be independent. Because we will not be present for our children forever. We often think that by doing his chores we are showing our concern with him. At the end choice is ours.