The things we forget to teach our children

How many times in your adult life have you stopped and thought, “Wait, why didn’t my parents ever teach me that?”.

As parents, it’s our job to prepare our children for the big, wide world – and while that certainly involves teaching them skills like driving a car or paying a bill, it also means teaching them a few things that can be easy to forget about.

Here are 10 important life lessons that we think all children should know by the time they fly the coop.

1. How to cook eggs, and not just fried. Being able to poach, scramble and even separate an egg isn’t just handy knowledge – it’s also a great way to form foundational cooking skills.
2. How to maintain their car, including changing tyres and filling them up with air, checking their oil and keeping their windscreen wiper fluid topped up.
3. How to do their own washing, including separating things by colour, removing stains and even folding and ironing their clothes properly.
4. How to set a table properly, and the proper dinner table etiquette. Small things like how a person places their knife and fork together on the plate at the end of a meal say a lot about them.
5. How to change a lightbulb, as well as how to properly use a hammer, screwdriver and even measuring tape.
6. How to wrap a gift – it’s an art form!
7. How to do basic first aid, and we’re not just talking about putting on a band-aid. Think things like how to sterilize a wound, add ice or heat to an injury and how to immediately deal with a concussion.
8. How to save and manage their money, including how to file a tax return (and set money aside for one).
9. How to address an envelope – yes, we’re talking about real snail mail! It may seem like a thing of the past, but being able to properly write on an envelope or package will save your child many panicked post office runs.
10. How to properly greet people, the old-fashioned way. Good manners don’t go unnoticed, and teaching your child this kind of conversational etiquette is a testament to the way they were raised.