<p>The secret to swallowing a pill: don’t try to put it on the back of your tongue–put it on the tip of your tongue, and take a drinkof water. Don’t swallow the pill–swallow the water. The pill will magically disappear.</p>
<p>I can’t get my wife to even try this.</p>
<p>Interesting topic that we are “talking” about.</p>
<p>Our goal was to send our DD off to college with the ability to take care of herself and we started pretty early. We thought “if something happened to us” - can she manage life skills? During college DD had many summer jobs away from home, traveling by herself home and abroad, and now is off to graduate schoool. Here’s our list of skills we tried to coach her on: please add!</p>
<p>“Hard” skills: - thank goodness for 7th and 8th grade Home Ec and Technology/Shop classes that all students had to take.
<p>“Soft Skills”
<p>It sounds like we have been tyrants, but far from it. We started early and just integrated learning lessons into everyday life (not a boot camp).</p>
<p>What I didn’t learn until my junior year: License plates have a sticker on them that expires…I found out about that one when I got a ticket.</p>
<p>I remember calling my mother to ask her why she didn’t tell me about that. Turns out she she didn’t know what I was talking about…step-dad always took care of all that “car stuff”.</p>
<p>
This is a good point, and reminds me of something I need to do–tell the kids where the important papers are, and to have some notion of what would need to be done if something happened to us.</p>
<p>Our kids think we are lazy because we make them do things like put the stickers on our license plates or call for take out food orders or call colleges with questions or clean their own bathrooms or go out for dinner without them so they have to fend for themselves, etc, etc, etc. If they don’t do it right, we make them do it again, not because we are anal but because they need to learn to do things the right way. They will figure it out when they have kids of their own and/or go to college and have roommates that can’t even change a roll of toilet paper because she never had to at home :D. Our oldest is figuring this out with his girlfriend right now. She needed some extra money for school so we are having her “clean” our house. She does a terrible job but she is learning. He had to show her how to do a few things and I have been working with her as well. She is very good with organizing cupboards, etc. though :D.</p>
<p>Good point Hunt. When DD was 5 she came home from kindergarten telling us she did not want to be embalmed. (yes, a playmate had just come from his grandfathers funeral and spared no detail). Although she couldn’t legally have a will at 5, we wrote it down and included it in our will. She also wanted to be buried with her American Girl Doll and favorite blanket. Now, she has her own will and living will, she signed the Hippa release so we have access to her medical records and Drs if she is in an accident, and she knows where are papers are.</p>
<p>one more thing that just came to mind. When calling 911 always call from a landline, if possible. We have someone drive my Father 6 days a week. I got a call from the driver one day he thought something was wrong with my Father. The symptoms he described were classic stroke symptoms. I asked him to call 911 and then call me back. Unfortunately, he called from his cellphone which directed the call to the state police rather than local police. It took 15 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. Whereas if he called locally, they get an ambulance out within minutes. It probably did not make a difference in this instance, but it could mean someones life depending on the medical issue.</p>
<p>On dialing 911 - some places have gotten the technology to track cell phones on 911 but the reality is if they are at college - there are not many landlines left! I was shocked in taking tours this summer that I did not see one phone in a dorm room!!! We may have to teach them what a “landline” is!!!</p>
<p>ahsmuoh–when our oldest went off to college, his freshman year was the year that they took the landlines out of the dorms at his school. I agree, they are difficult to find these days and if you tell them to call from a landline it might take MORE time then calling from a cell phone.</p>
<p>Great thread, and I don’t feel “quite” as bad about gaps in my D’s education! On a positive note, she left with the skills of doing laundry and sewing buttons. She could gas up her car, but since she’s an East Coast-er now, may never have to do that again! </p>
<p>Financially, she’s hopeless. She’s a junior at NYU and still does not know how to check online for her bank balance or do anything more than make deposits or withdrawals at an ATM and get her balance that way. She does work and is actually paying all her personal expenses this semester, but I help her keep on track with her budget.</p>
<p>She left for college with zero cooking skills, but has acquired the rudiments along the way, and found a BF who is a great cook! The grocery store still amazes her, and she often calls me when she’s there with questions.</p>
<p>She is clueless on finding health care providers who accept her insurance, and are close to her geographically, so I still do the research, make appointments, etc. She has needed several specialists not available through the health center, so I went ahead and did this because I figure it saves me money in the long run.</p>
<p>She has learned to do her own travel arrangements, and has become much more self-sufficient over the past couple of years. She does an awesome job with the NYC public transportation system, which would overwhelm me, I am sure. She is extremely organized and responsible with her classwork/work/rehearsal schedule. She managed her move from dorm to apartment with very little intervention from me.</p>
<p>I figure at some point she won’t need my help at all, but in the meantime, I am fine with how things are.</p>
<p>Reading a printed train schedule. In the on-line age, you just enter your station & time and the itinerary pops up. (we actually did this with our girl scout troop in middle school - not sure all of them understood). </p>
<p>I think most kids should know basic first aid. (IMO CPR/First aid should be part of required health/PE classes)</p>
<p>D1 still doesn’t know how to pump gas, since “Jersey Girls don’t pump gas”!</p>
<p>nj2011mom–not that they couldn’t figure it out but our kids have never had a need to read a train schedule–we just don’t have them here as part of the transportation system :D.</p>
<p>My daughter mailed her father’s birthday in the Fed Ex pick-up box! She knew she needed a stamp at least :)</p>
<p>The other more important thing she didn’t know was to carry her id and medical insurance cards with her off campus. She left for a trip out of state for spring break without either one!</p>
<p>At least she knew cooking basics. She’s had two different roommates melt plastic in the oven or on top of the stove. And one made boxed macaroni and cheese (remember there are directions on the box!) but didn’t drain the water out of the pasta.</p>
<p>This really is a generation that doesn’t know how to address and send actual mail.</p>
<p>If your child has a car, get AAA or something similar.</p>
<p>I was a chaperone on a HS trip…one of the 16 year olds had a terrible headache but couldn’t swallow a pill. I was astounded. We tried to put a pill in applesauce, mashed potatoes, etc…didn’t work. (I finally took the pill myself because I had developed a headache by then!)</p>
<p>missypie, I learned with ice cream. Several weeks of practice were required.</p>
<p>My kids learned with the tiny red Sudafed pills…they are very small and very smooth.</p>
<p>I have a cousin who truly didn’t learn how to blow her nose until late HS. So parents, PLEASE, for the sake of us all, if your kid doesn’t know how to blow her nose, work on it!</p>
<p>One more thing. We recently attended a wedding. We were talking to the uncle of the bride. He said that he had tied three ties that afternoon…his own, his son’s (a 4 year old who was the ring bearer) and his 45 year old brother’s!</p>
<p>We actually need a companion thread:</p>
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</p>
<p>Because I don’t know how to work any of our DVD players.</p>
<p>Payphones. My daughter navigated her way to Oslo as an exchange student (though the program handled all the plane tickets and other travel arrangements, I asked her to apply for her passport herself, with my help, and read the airline’s information about how much she could pack, etc.). She was charming and fun with her host family. She <em>loved</em> the public transportation system, and while she rarely takes public transit at home (in the suburbs that don’t have a good system), she eagerly learned how to hop on and off trains and buses by herself in Oslo. But … She was traveling on a train with a school group of about 12, plus a teacher chaperone, and at the end of the day, was tired and fell asleep on the 1-hour ride. She didn’t wake up at her stop, and no one noticed she was still sleeping, until the doors had closed and the train was pulling away. It was an express train and traveled a good long distance until the next stop. She had no cell phone with her because the international rates on her phone were ridiculously expensive, but when she looked at the payphones in the train station to call her host family, she didn’t have a clue as to how to use them. Eventually, her teacher got in touch with a worker at the next train stop where she had landed, and she had been asking workers for help, so they found each other, and the worker told her exactly what train to take to meet up with her teacher. Oy vey! I heard all about this via FB chat that night: “Mommy, they left me asleep on the train and went off without me.” Who left you, dear? “The teacher and all the exchange students.” Mama was not happy, but was amazed at the calm that my daughter showed in reuniting with her peeps. Lucky for her, too, that so many people in Oslo speak English. She had learned some rudimentary Norwegian before she left, but that wasn’t going to cut it to explain her conundrum. Next time she travels overseas, she’ll be renting a cheapo international cell phone as soon as she lands!</p>
<p>My dad: Don’t drink on an empty stomach.</p>
<p>D. is not very good at going to ER when it was absolutely required. I had to “work her” up to doing so over the phone. But we have discussed it before, I cannot say that we neglected it. However, even with the 2nd time she still hesitated, and that happened after she already graduated from college. My guess, that not much you can do sometime, except scream on a phone what to do.
We trained her how to take pills when she was 10 y o. This is essential life skill that has to be done. We did it with ice pieces and it worked!
I did not teach any household skills. I figured out (correctly) that if they can get themselves accepted to college, they can read labels and recipes if needed, it is not a rocket science. Some of them will be organized and some will not, it is part of who they are.</p>