A Mom Asked For All The Life Skills We Need To Teach Our Kids Before Adulthood

Having tweens and teens is the weirdest thing. You know they’re bigger — you can literally see them growing right in front of you — but it’s hard to not continue doing things for them like you did when they were newborns and toddlers and elementary schoolers. But one TikTok mom pointed out that, at some point, you’re going to have to start teaching your kids some basic life skills — and it’s kind of surprising how many of them I hadn’t even thought about before.

TikTok mom @saradactyl85 took to TikTok with a short story. “My 14-year-old recently put an Alani in the freezer overnight and it dawned on me that there’s a list of things I need to make sure to teach her in 4 years,” she wrote on the video. “What is something I need to add to the list?”

And y’all. The comments delivered.

A similar interaction occurred to me with my 11-year-old, who recently came downstairs after eating some sticky candy and immediately opened up a pack of Lysol wipes. When I asked her what she was doing, she told me she needed a wipe for her hands and face.

I am... glad I caught her.

Some of the comments on the post were in a similar vein. There’s no shame or judgement for our kids — somebody has to teach them these things, you know — but it’s funny to think there are so many life skills we forget our kids don’t inherently know.

Some were specifically about household maintenance and the like:

• “Always empty the lint catcher in your dryer!! Every load!”
• “An oil change is not an optional thing.”
• “Dish soap and dishwasher detergent are not the same thing.”
• “Cooking practice! A friend of mine has her kids each cook the family dinner once a month. They get a budget, plan the meal, do the shopping, all the prep and cooking.”
• “Laundry. I can’t believe how many 20-year-olds have never done laundry.”
• “How to turn the water off if the toilet starts overflowing!!!”

Some were good, solid, practical advice:

• “Have her take a CPR course.”
• “If she has siblings, to remember they were her first friends so even when they are annoying she needs to be connected. Someday they will be who can connect her to her past and her parents. They will be her tether.”
• “High school is just a blip on the radar. The rest of your life is so much richer and fulfilling and important.”
• “How to read the price tags at the grocery store, i.e. comparing price per unit or weight. How to shop sales.”
• “Don’t microwave metal.”

And because the TikTok specifically mentioned things for your daughter to know before adulthood, there were some pieces of advice that were hard to read:

• “‘No’ is a complete sentence.”
• “Tell the cops NOTHING, tell the paramedics EVERYTHING!”
• “Don’t ever leave your friend. Make sure wherever you are, you leave with every single girl you came with. Never leave a girl behind or let a girl leave with an unknown man.”
• “Don’t center a man when making life decisions.”

Phew. There’s so much to think about when raising these kids. Teaching them simple things like how to use a washing machine and a microwave to big things like how to take care of a car and buy a house, it’s no wonder we all feel a little overwhelmed. But starting a list is great, and you can chip away at it as your kids become young adults. As one commenter perfectly said, “I read all the comments to see if there was anything I need to learn.”

Because we’ve all got things to learn.