According to Barbara Greenberg, Ph.D., 90 percent of college students who visit their college counseling center show up because they’re experiencing anxiety. In many cases, they suffer because they lack the skills to manage their lives that they could have learned at home from a young age.
Household Chores
Boys should learn how to clean toilets, wash dishes, fold laundry and run the washing machine and dryer before they move out on their own. The more household chores they know, the more competent they’ll be when they move out. Parents can help them avoid frustrations by teaching them any necessary skills that they will have to do on their own.
Budgeting and Money Management
Boys need to learn proper money management skills from an early age including the following:
- How to balance a check book
- How to manage their own money to pay for basics, such as rent, utility bills, food, gas, car insurance and phone bills
- How to set up a savings account
- Principles of compounded interest and more.
While a line of credit can help in securing loans, they might feel tempted to use credit to bail themselves out of a tight financial situation. Instead, they need to learn the consequences of debt and interest. Understanding the basics of spending within one’s means from a young age can help boys for the rest of their adult lives.
Time Management
Boys need to understand goal-setting, prioritizing, planning and scheduling, and it’s best to teach your son these skills as early as possible. Children can be taught to distinguish between larger tasks and smaller ones, and to focus on the larger ones first by breaking them down into smaller ones. Learning to budget his time will help him in many areas of life, especially at work.
Organizational Skills
Before you teach your son about organization, first you will need to explain the benefits of being organized. You can help him develop a daily schedule by using a checklist or planner either on paper or electronically so that assignments and tasks can be checked off when they are completed. Include both chores and responsibilities as well as free time and rewards in order so that he does not view organization as a negative thing.
Cooking
A 2014 study from Pew Research stated that the number of stay-at-home fathers in America has nearly doubled since 1989, which means that up to two million men in recent years are taking on roles that require them to know how to do the things traditionally considered women’s chores. Many boys will likely share the duty of family meal preparation as adults, even if they don’t cook full time at home.
By teaching your son these basics, you will provide him with a great head start in life, which will benefit him when he moves out of your home.
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