Imagine yourself having one, more or all of these future conversations with your kids that left the nest.
● Hey mom/dad, I have to do a group work assignment with some people and I just cannot seem to work with them. Not my kind of people.
● Hey mom/dad, I forgot to schedule my doctor’s appointment, but I’m super busy now. Will you book the appointment for me please and let me know what time I need to be there?
● Hey mom/dad, you won’t believe this. I had a meeting this afternoon. I arrived 15 minutes late, now everyone’s upset with me.
● Hey mom/dad, this budget you have me on just isn’t working for me, will you please transfer me some money?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to find myself on the other side of the phone conversation in any of these scenarios up top.
Empowering our kids from an early age with life skills should be a topic upfront and centre, EVERYWHERE. What can be more important than equipping them with the essential life skills they’ll need to thrive as adults.
What’s even more important is that the journey we take along with them is a fun one, to incorporate the skill learning process into everyday life.
Now, before I move along, I don’t have a formal degree, but I do have a “MOM” degree that comes with some experience, and I certainly have done some homework and read up a lot on what essential life skills I want my girls to possess by the time they leave our nest.
The book “Futureproof your child for the 2020s and beyond”, written by Nikki Bush and Graeme Codrington sums it up in a nutshell, filled with resources and wise words. A must-read for anyone who is a parent in today’s day and age.
The combination of social and emotional learning, foundational literacies, competencies and character qualities is what we want our girls to possess and encourage them to work on every day is:
● To eat healthy and stay active daily. After all, ‘n Gesonde liggaam huisves ‘n gesonde gees.
● To know yourself by practicing self-awareness and self-regulation, to be true to yourself and to always be mindful.
● To relate to others by encouraging good social skills, good communication, collaboration and empathize with other people’s situations.
● To make responsible decisions in everyday life.
● To be creative.
● To be problem solvers.
● To be curios and be a lifelong learner.
● To take initiative.
● To be persistent.
● To learn to adapt to changes and to different situations.
● To be leaders.
● To be resilient.
● To be productive and manage your time wisely.
● To be financially literate.
Now, the question. How do we teach our kids these skills above?
Well, by being mindful of the things we all go through in everyday life, by activities like cooking together and everyday chores.
Think about it. There really are life lessons every single day and that’s why being mindful is so important. Chatting to our kids about their day, and to not just settle for a simple yes or no to questions we ask them about their day.
Even when my husband or myself experience something in our daily lives, we’ll turn that into a life lesson for our kids, by recreating the scenario and bring it to their level to make it an age-appropriate lesson that they will understand. We ask questions like, what would you do in this situation?
We let them sit on it, they’ll answer and we’ll discuss their answers as a family.
I truly believe they will remember the conversation somewhere in the back of their minds and that it might come in handy in their own lives for them to apply then.
Repetition. Kids learn through repetition. Luckily our girls’ attitudes are good towards learning new things. The time we have with our kids where they’re still live under our roof is the time we as parents have to make a big impact on their lives and the time you have as a parent to equip your kids the best you know-how.
In Galatians 5: 22-23 we learn about the fruit of the spirit, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
This is how God wants us to live our lives, and this is what we try and teach our girls every day.
xoxo
Liezl