Essential Life Skills Every Parent Should Teach Their Children
As a parent, has it ever occurred how independent your child is? If your child is well endowed and equipped with essential life skills to face the world? Please give it a thought! One of the best way parents prepare and get their children ready for adulthood is by mentoring them and being their first teacher to guide them learn the various essential skills they will need.
As a parent, it’s your responsibility to teach your kids some necessary life skills to make them grow into a humble, responsible and respectful person. Developing and teaching life skills is crucial so that children have a brief idea of what they aspire to do in life and essentially keep in mind the kind of person they want to be.
Here’s my list of few life skills every parent should help their children learn:
1. Teach children never to stop reading and learning
Reading opens the mind to a wide range of possibilities, learning new things and vocabulary. It also boosts imagination making children wiser and smarter. Children should not only be restricted to read textbooks as a way of learning. Encourage children to read age-appropriate books, simple recipes to follow and easy to read newspaper articles. This will make them open-minded, receptive to learning from lies and inspired by people they read about.
2. Good communication and public speaking
Good communication and general speaking skills are indispensable for success in various aspects of life. Kids are great learners. With proper guidance from an early age, teaching skills related to public speaking for kids will be beneficial. When this happens, kids have the desire to voice their opinions, thoughts and views openly. It allows them to form connections, motivate change and influence decisions. Public speaking is a great way to teach kids to help improve their life and career. This includes your communication skills when you’re speaking online or in-person.
3. Decision-making skills
Instilling decision-making skills from an early age helps children weigh opinions, evaluate situations and take independent decisions. Start with small tasks and walk them through the various decision-making steps with activities like choosing from games, clothes to wear or food to eat. Once this happens, children will be conscious of the consequences that each decision causes.
4 Teach kids to apologize and forgive
Children should be well aware that everyone makes mistakes, and there is no shame in accepting those mistakes and asking for forgiveness. They should be taught that forgiveness and forgiving others should be a sign of being courageous and humble.
5. Teach kids kindness and to help others
Showing unconditioned kindness and readiness to help others in need develops compassion in children. Be patient, use kind words, even when you are tired & frustrated, teach them not to judge others, encourage them to perform small acts of kindness in school, such as sharing their lunch box, etc. It helps them understand the difference between need and wants in life.
6. Focus and self-control
Children thrive on habits, schedules and routines, which help children learn self-control and focus. Communicate with your child about what to expect each day. Teach your child the necessary organizing skills so that they know where to put shoes, coats, and personal belongings. Indulge them regularly in activities like reading a book, enjoying sensory activities, or completing a puzzle together can help your child roll back and increase focus. As they grow old have conversations about more difficult issues they will face.
7. Taking on challenges
One of the most important traits we can develop in life is taking on challenges, bounce back from failure, and never stop trying. Children learn to take on challenges and be resilient when creating an environment with the right amount of structure. Encourage your child to try different things and allow reasonable risk, such as climbing a tree or riding a bike.
These essential life skills will assist your child in coping with the world. Making sure your child is proud of the critical life skills they learn. This is because parents play a crucial role in providing children to know about how the world works. But with patience, understanding, and a few simple tricks, you will indeed teach your children the way to success without it seeming like an enormous task!
Author Bio:
Samidha Raj works as part of the content marketing team at Planet Spark, a platform that provides online classes to K8 learners on “New Age Skills” like, English Communication, Public Speaking, Grammar, Creative Writing, Debating, etc. She is passionate about empowering the youth by educating parents about the importance of 21st-century skills. In her free time, you can find her watching documentaries or animated movies and organizing game nights (board games are her thing)!
