There was also this thread, http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1790883-what-life-skills-should-a-kid-have-by-the-age-of-16-p1.html, but I found many of the parents’ suggestions comical.
My kids are a) pretty smart; and b) don’t feel uncomfortable calling me to ask. What’s the best way to order textbooks? Is it OK to use Venmo? Can you help me figure out the cheapest way to get to X? I use all of these as teaching moments, so they can absorb the relevant skills/knowledge for the future (see point a).
My son did call my wife and ask her for her help in buying a present for a young woman when he was a sophomore in college. My wife asked what was the occasion. It took a little prying but he’d slept with one woman. He’d been interested in her roommate for a while but the roommate had had a BF. He learned a) that the BF was no longer in the picture; and b) she was interested in him. Shortly after the first liaison (the next day or within the week) he slept with the second one (who became his GF for 1.5+ years). He wanted to give a present to the first one. My wife said, “No present is going to solve this problem.”