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?

@WrylyAmused post sums it up nicely.
I think we need a list. What shall we put as the top 10?

I want my ds's to be well rounded. To have inner confidence. Self worth. A fighting spirit. They have all those. To value themselves and enjoy the journey. To question themselves constantly, but to always know they are good enough.

If I tried to list it into a top 10 I wonder how I'd word this?

Both loading a dishwasher and learning to wash up by hand. When they move out there might not be a dishwasher.

I moved in to a shared flat the day after the dishwasher repair man had been, and he told the two who had already moved in not to use washing up liquid in the dishwasher.

How to 'solve' things eg if the dishwasher has stopped working that you can use the powder to hand wash, you don't get suds but it works.

\I have always been able to follow a recipe and I knew a few things from home but I actually learned to cook properly by watching, 'ready, steady, cook'.

So not just shopping for ingredients, cooking and cleaning up afterwards but open the fridge / cupboards and make something out of the contents.

Know how to do things without tech, that you can use a watch as a compass, read a paper map / timetable / use a pay phone (all though they are dying out).

How to eat politely with cutlery, chopsticks and hands. You never know where you will end up in life.

I know I've taught my DC life skills because DS is in his first year at Uni and can
cook decent meals from scratch,
takes the bins out,
cleans up after himself,
budgets,
knows how to use public transport
Can swim
Doesn't drive because no need as we live in a city
Great in various social settings
Confident
Should be able to do CPR if necessary
Good at timekeeping
Kind
Not a doormat or pushover
Enjoys reading for pleasure

And everything @WrylyAmused says which is well stated

Delayed rewards, and linked to that, resilience and tenacity, the ability to fail and not go to pieces. All that good stuff.

“Being good at tennis is an excellent life skill” so says Joanna Lumley’s character Felicity, in ‘Amandaland’ 😅

This is definitely a work-in-progress for my six-year-old. I’m trying to persuade her to see her mistakes as learning opportunities, not as reasons to storm off and say her life is ruined!

Also, on the subject of tennis being an excellent life skill, I’ve always thought that being able to sing and/or play a musical instrument would be really handy at times. And although no one would put this in a list of key life skills, I really wish I could imitate different accents. I would be much better at telling jokes if I could do this.