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How are today’s parents supposed to prepare their children for adult life? That’s the main task of parenting and something most of us desperately want to get right.
But where do you start? That’s where this blog comes in handy. We take a look at what busy parents should be doing to prepare their kids for their lives. Here’s everything you need to know:
Start Integrating Life Skills Into Your Family Routine
The first step along the journey is to integrate life skills into your kids’ upbringing. Instead of doing all the work for them, get them involved when it is age-appropriate.
The most important life skills are finance, cooking, cleaning, and being sociable. Having these four pillars in place sets kids up for success in multiple areas.
Cleaning and being sociable are two life skills you can begin integrating from an early age. Take your kids to playdates and get them to help you clean the kitchen and bathroom, giving them small tasks and showing them what they need to do.
Next comes cooking. It’s slightly more complicated because it involves hot ovens, open flames, and sharp knives. However, you can teach your kids the basics and introduce them to more advanced and complex tasks as they get older.
Finally, you’ll want to introduce your kids to the idea of managing their finances. This process can start with providing them with a small amount of pocket money when they are young and then introducing various financial concepts, such as savings accounts, investments, and other incentives.
Teach Big Lessons In Small Chunks
Another popular tactic among busy parents is to teach big lessons in small chunks. This approach lets you get more done in a short space of time, but what does it actually mean?
The answer is that it depends. As a parent, you’ll need to decide on the right schedule for your kids, and the teachings you’ll impart.
One approach is to think back to the lessons bestowed on you when you were younger and apply these to your kids. Think carefully about the times when older people had the greatest impact on you and why. Then see if you can condense these lessons into smaller chunks you can run through in the car or over the breakfast table. Little insights can help children make significant breakthroughs and shape their characters as they get older.
Leverage Quality Time
You can also leverage the power of quality time with your kids. Instead of insisting on packing their schedules with endless activities, focus more on meaningful interactions that foster growth. Try to avoid a situation where you are constantly rushing from one task to the next. Make sure you can take time out from time to time and slow down to teach your children valuable lessons.
The best way to do this is to get out into nature away from distractions. These situations naturally conjure longer conversations which often go right to the core of issues kids are dealing with right now. It also exposes them to new experiences that assist their development and help them move to the next stage.
Prioritize The Things That Matters
Parents should also avoid a scatter-gun approach to their kids’ development. Time is limited, so focusing on the most essential development activities is essential.
The most important aspects of your child’s development will change as they age. In the early years, it’s motor skills and basic language. As they get older, it’s learning specific skills and developing a plan for their lives.
As a parent, you can play a role in each of these life stages, and change the environment as you see fit. You want your child to have access to the educational tools they require at every stage of the journey. Kids also need their parents to be available at critical junctures to point them in the right direction.
See Technology As A Tool
Another way to prepare kids for life as adults is to view technology as a tool, not something that’s just in the way. Whether parents like it or not, devices and computer interfaces are here to stay, as are online entertainment, games, and social media.
The trick is for parents to sell this surfeit of technology as a tool to their children. Kids should learn that it’s something they can use to further their objectives in life and gain an advantage in a competitive world. It shouldn’t be something that gets in the way of their development.
Learning On The Move
Another valuable skill that prepares kids to thrive in adult life is the ability to learn on the go. Turning downtime into an opportunity for progression is an opportunity.
Again, parents need to strike a balance here. Constantly imploring children to do something productive deprives them of valuable rest. But allowing time to go to waste is also excessive in the opposite direction.
Learning on the move could mean listening to an educational podcast in the car or learning new skills when there’s nothing else to do on a Saturday morning.
Cultivate A Growth-Oriented Attitude
Parents should also cultivate a growth-oriented attitude in their kids. Children should feel like they are progressing towards adulthood, not attempting to remain carefree kids indefinitely. Children should have a profound sense of their individual efficacy and agency. Young people must sense that they are able to do real and valuable things in the world.
One of the best ways to do this is to provide kids with more autonomy. Helping them work towards their driver’s license gives them a sense of power and efficacy. Driving is one of the first times kids get to experience real responsibility, encouraging them to step into their adult shoes.
Delegate Responsibility
Related to this, you might consider delegating more responsibility to your children. Giving them more choice over family decisions or allocating chores can change how they view themselves. Instead of following the parental lead, they learn the value of choosing a unique direction.
Enable Positive Decision-Making
Parents can and should also focus on enabling their children to make decisions. The more choices kids can make, the more freedom parents have, and the faster they will learn about the consequences of their actions.
Evidence suggests that children who are free to make more decisions when they are younger are less likely to display impulsive behavior when they are older. While they will make some mistakes when they are younger, these often prove instructive, and they learn from them.
Cultivate Curiosity
Parents should also aim to cultivate curiosity, particularly if they are short on time. Children who are interested in everything about the world will often direct their own education and rarely require entertainment.
The best way to cultivate a sense of curiosity is to demonstrate it yourself. If children see you interested in every little thing, they are more likely to follow you.
Note that curiosity isn’t something you can teach or enforce. The more you push it, the less likely your children are to put down their devices and pick up a book or do some research. The trick is to get them excited about something “out there.” The more you can do this, the more likely they are to make their own inquiries.
Display Emotional Intelligence
Another tactic for introducing your kids to adulthood is to display emotional intelligence in front of your children. Show them how to navigate complicated social interactions with deftness whenever you get the chance.
The more you can do this, the more your kids will pick up on it. Eventually, they will add your repertoire of skills to their own, using them in social situations as they grow up.
Displaying emotional intelligence begins with the way you interact with your children. Showing empathy and compassion while skillfully negotiating their wants and desires is challenging, but also a lesson in itself. As they get older, their default emotional posture will be an intelligent one, driven primarily by the lessons they learned when they were younger.
Make Parenting a Team Effort
You can also try turning parenting into a team effort. Instead of trying to do everything yourself, you can work with others to raise kids more successfully.
Getting grandparents involved can be beneficial. Having an extra pair of hands available to take care of kids during the day frees you up to focus on other things, like progressing at work. You can also get your wider circle of family and friends involved, or share responsibilities with them if they have kids. Parental responsibility shouldn’t always fall on the shoulders of one or two people.
Make Learning Hands-On
Finally, you can accelerate learning at home by making it more hands-on. Kids are much more likely to learn faster if they can explore the world through touch and sensory experiences. While they might not develop “book intelligence,” they will gain a deeper understanding of things around them. Their bodies will also develop a kind of “smartness” in the form of better balance and coordination.
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