Life Skills for Kids5 min read

Let your kids develop a backbone and not a wishbone. The future generation demands the skill of learning new skills. Everything else will become obsolete over time. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your children were told to manage their daily stuff, homework, academic stress, and handle their emotions alone? Whether they possess essential life skills required to live in this world or not?

If you didn’t think about such questions earlier, you must do that now! Because if your child can’t look after themselves, they can’t develop skills or the essential personality traits alone.

Real-life exposure to academic excellence

Apart from being academically excellent, it is essential to be technically more intelligent and skillful in today’s modern world. You might be thinking- What is the need to teach your little ones at home when you spend so many bucks and send them to school. But you need to understand that life skill education is not something that can be achieved at the school level. A child needs to gather sufficient experience, real-life conversations, and support from the elders, and apart from all this, they need to incorporate moral values in life.

Here is a list of 8 skills to equip your child with. Have a look at them and make a note of all those skills your kids ‘must have’ and the ones that s/he already possess.

Having decision-making skills

No one can afford to make poor decisions. You need to teach your child a systematic approach to decision-making so that they can make it with confidence no matter what type of decision they have to make. Guide them, be with them and show them the right path whenever they lose the right way. Undoubtedly there are plenty of solutions to each problem. Make them wise and bold enough to be responsible for their own decisions.

Learn cooking

Wondering how to teach your kids to cook and have an entirely new experience in life? For adults and children, cooking can be a lot more than just a pleasure. Nowadays, we often observe many reality shows and competitions where such activities are highly appreciated and rewarded. Keeping this factor aside, we never know what difficult situations one can have in the future. Therefore it is wise to learn such essential skills from an early age.

Indulge in cleaning and other household work

Learning to help with household chores helps children learn essential skills and feel good about contributing to family life. Such skills enhance empathy, dedication, and hard work amongst an individual. Being involved in chores also makes children feel wanted—a desire to be loved and a good spirit of positive energy.

Respecting the concept of Dignity of Labour

No work is big or small. Every assignment should be equally respected as well as equal to the other. Teach your kids never to perceive any job- big or small. If a person strives hard for excellence and is dedicated to his work, we all must appreciate his efforts. Children must respect this concept from an early age, no matter what.

Being resilient and adaptive

Adaptive behaviors include real-life skills such as grooming, getting dressed, avoiding danger, safe food handling, following school rules, managing money, cleaning, and making friends. If your child appears to be lagging behind his peers regarding resilience and adaptive behavior, you must investigate to find out the source of the problem. Adjusting and adapting to frequent situations will eventually shape your little ones as better human beings.

Dealing with strangers

Tell your kids that if a stranger ever approaches and offers a ride or treats (like candy or toys) or asks for help with a task (like helping find a lost dog), they should step away, yell “No!” and leave the area immediately. Your child should tell you or another trusted adult what happened. However, it also becomes essential to encourage kids to trust their instincts. Teach them that if someone makes them feel uncomfortable or feel like something’s not right — even if they can’t explain why — they need to walk away immediately.

Taking a stand for themselves

Teach them to be fair in every situation, and they’ll learn to stand up for themselves. As with any life skill, practice will build strength in your kid’s ability to stand up for themselves and the needy. Tell them that being assertive doesn’t mean that they need to fight every wrong person first. They can take a stand for themselves by simply saying “no” when they feel tired or refusing to listen to someone who disregards them.

Coping up with failure

Failure is inevitable in one’s life. Therefore, all of us must overcome the fear of failure. Concerned with success and survival, living in such a competitive world that worships winners and criticizes losers, even people with average self-esteem tend to react to failure with a negative mind and attitude. Besides this factor, it becomes essential for us to teach our kids to overcome the loss.

Conclusion

If you want your children to grow stronger, smarter, and resistant to most problems, you will have to teach them by example. It’s never easy being a good and supportive parent. It would help if you strived for so many things altogether. But as parents, if you are trying hard to be one, you already are a good parent! Hope that you like the above skills. Have a note for all of them, and start working, enjoying, and teaching your kid.