What do you consider as essential life skills?

[IndependentAdjudicator]

You're now a parent.
How do you go about equipping your child to be confident in the real world?

I forgot swimming!

I'll be paying for their driving lessons. I work in a jobcenter and it will just make life easier fo them.

Weighing up options / considered decision-making.

I mean it will open the door to many more jobs as we live quite rurally.

how to apologise
how to thank someone
how to accept that you might sometimes be bored or not want to do something but it's not always about you
how to give a compliment
how to receive a compliment

Totally agree. Knowing how to budget, prioritise spending, able to prepare simple, cheap meals. Use the washing machine. Useful IT skills- completing on line forms for example

The ability to spot fake news
Being able to avoid scammers
Not being 'influenced' by anyone online
Being able to spot and avoid a narcissist
Wearing factor 50 sunscreen
Embracing a minimalist life
Good financial management and planning

Swimming, driving a car (utterly appalling how many adults on MN seem to be unable to drive and get stuck especially living in rural areas), typing (properly touch typing, not jabbing away with two fingers) and being able to ride a bicycle.

How to talk to people, how to read the room, how to cook, how to earn money, how to manage money, how to say no, how to accept a compliment, how to ask for help, how to research/ find out how to do things you don't know about, how to love and be loved, how to stay true to yourself.

To be financially independent.

Being able to use public transport.

This means a bus, train and airport eventually.

How to read a timetable, get the correct service, plan a journey/connections. Arrive on time.

Too many kids are ferried around/babied/think they are too good to use public transport. It's a vital life skill and a key part of problem solving/independence.

A woman from work recently called in and said she couldn't come in as her car had a flat tyre. She lives on a main bus route where they are every 10 minutes. She said she didn't know how to read the timetable/find out the right number or catch the bus, genuinely. I was flabbergasted.

Time management

All the usual - driving, contraception/sexual health (at the right age!) swimming, cycling, cooking, cleaning, budgeting, basic DIY and laundry. Also the value of deferred gratification, and being aware of the risks of social media. Plus many of the behaviours and personality traits mentioned above such as courtesy, resilience, tolerance and amiability. As a recent empty-nester, I have not been successful on all of these. But dc have more of them than I was sent out into the world with, and many more than my mother had as a new bride nearly 60 years ago!

I can swim,drive a car and ride a bike but it wouldn’t remotely affect my life if I couldn’t do any of them. I’d say equip them to learn new things and not stay in their comfort zone, because you can never predict in advance exactly what skills you’ll need. (I need to be able to speak in public, and no-one including me saw that coming when I was young.)

How to create a poster (visual learning, picking out important bits, arranging them pleasingly, colour, neatness, clarity, getting to the point).

What fresh and ripe fruit/veg looks, smells and tastes like.

When to water a plant and when to leave it alone.

Bugs - identification and their evolutionary niche (and therefore not to kill them)

First aid.

Following process maps/creating workflows.

Logic.

Keyboard shortcuts.

Reading circuit diagrams.

Solving real life problems with maths - identifying where the 'only 49p/100g' was cheaper or dearer than '68p each', working out how many planks to cover the room and comparing to the online estimate.

Looking for the angle. Why are they telling you that? Why is it bright yellow? Would you agree if it had been worded differently?

That 'why?' is a perfectly valid thing to ask, even if you have to dress it up to get your answers.

That 'That's interesting' can be the start of something very, very special if you keep looking.

That you can think whatever you want - the challenge comes from knowing how to say it or whether to say it out loud at all.

Compound interest.

Agree with being able to cook a roast dinner (not sure mine can, mind you)

Able to ride a bike.

Able to swim.

Agree with timekeeping. And doing their own admin.

And of course, no good middle class child is unable to ski at the age of 18 (though mine has never been ski-ing, so I neglected my duties there).

And know what a book is and that you don't tap or swipe it, before starting school.

And to use a map and not rely on satnav.

Tell the truth, even if you get into trouble
Say you are sorry when you’re wrong
Manage your money
Trust your gut
Learn to swim

Being able to use a phone as an actual telephone without having a panic attack about how triggering it is for you to actually speak to someone in real time.

To read a recipe and follow it (it's like learning to cook but you get a wider range of things that you can make if you can follow a recipe accurately)
To see things from other people's perspective (ie, you are not always right)
How to clean, tidy and keep a house ticking over
That you have to work for money and that nobody will ride to your rescue if you cock up
Independence (in whatever form that might be, it could be learning to drive or just learning how to use public transport).

My eldest is on the cusp of adulthood. Things like cooking, cleaning skills just seemed to come naturally

The thing he turns to us to guide him through are things like signing an employment contract, dealing with his car insurance when someone damaged his car, knowing what questions to ask the consultant at the hospital and not just being fobbed off.

So I think some sort of phone skill and self advocacy.

Agree with all the life skills listed so far. Mine is how to have confidence in handling normal day to day people interactions, especially for the first time when it seems more of a big deal.

So many young people seem to be unable to make or receive a simple telephone call for example, or make simple polite small talk with people they don't know.

Also basic things like planning a journey to an unfamiliar destination, buying a ticket in person (such as at a train station), returning something in store, making a polite complaint about bad service or faulty products. So many kids are used to everything being on line and can't seem to manage anything face to face.

How to plan ahead and remain calm when things go wrong - saw a 20 something having a meltdown at a tube station recently as their phone had died, station staff weren't letting them through the barriers to get and they had no other way to pay for anything or call someone. Getting angry or crying wasn't going to help.

Cooking
Budgeting
Swimming
Internet awareness / safety

Agree with driving, swimming, basic kitchen skills.
Will add conversational and navigational skills are also important.