Teaching teenagers life skills prepares them for their futures. Learning the skills they need prevents them from calling you every time they need to wash laundry or change a flat tire. It gives teens an advantage by helping them budget their money wisely and saves them money by teaching basic maintenance skills. When a teenager knows basic life skills, he is more self-sufficient and adjusts better to adult responsibility.
Money
Step 1
Set up savings and checking accounts for your teen, with a debit card. The bank may want to add you to the account. Show the teenager how to balance a chequebook and keep track of her accounts. Most banks offer online services that help with tracking spending.
Step 2
Find or make a simple monthly budget. Make your teenager responsible for everything she spends. You can add her lunch money, gas money, clothes money, and other expenses you pay for to her checking account and make her responsible for paying them. If she goes over budget, she should pay it from her own funds.
Step 3
Help the teen find a part-time job in a field he may want to consider for a career. Require him to set aside a specified percentage of his earnings in a savings account. Teach him the difference between what he wants and what he needs so he doesn’t overspend.
Household and Cars
Step 1
Schedule a dinner once a week or a month as the teen’s responsibility. He has to plan the meal, do the grocery shopping within a budget and prepare the food. You might need to assist at first, help him find recipes, clip coupons and check the pantry for ingredients. Require the teen to also do the clean-up after the meal so he learns the whole process.
Step 2
Give your teenager responsibility for his laundry. Make sure he knows how to use the washer and dryer, read clothing labels for instructions and sort clothing properly. Teach some simple sewing skills for quick repairs on loose seams and buttons.
Step 3
Provide cleaners and require that the bedrooms and bathrooms stay clean. Give the teen a list of chores he has to do daily and weekly. Show teenagers how to organize their belongings following the Benjamin Franklin rule, “A place for everything; everything in its place.”
Step 4
Teach teenagers basic home repair and maintenance skills. Have them work with you anytime you do work at your home, such as changing the furnace filter and turning circuit breakers and water supply lines on and off. If you know how to do other home repairs and improvements, such as painting or installing a faucet, pass that knowledge on.
Step 5
Instruct teens on basic car maintenance. Teach them to change a tire, add air to a tire, check the oil, and pump gas. If you know how, or are willing to learn, show them how to change the oil, replace bulbs in the lights, and change the air filter.
