What skills did your parents feel were important to pass on?

[wonderstuff]

Just occurred to me that I left home unable to iron, cook or budget, but able to mix a mean gin and tonic!

What essential skills did your parents pass on to you?

(sits sipping gin in dishevelled poverty)

How to cure a cold overnight (lemsip, a double brandy and 10 hour sleep).

How to cook egg any way.

The basics of car maintenance.

How to cook both Irish/English and Indian food.

What to do if you see a tiger and only have an air rifle (completely useless in London, admittedly).

How to host a party

Making party food, especially 70's party food (made first baked alaska aged 9)

Mix a G&T and other drinks (also included making ice cubes, v.important)

Iron a shirt properly(DF)

write a cv/ covering letter

Patience/bridge/mahjong

dress codes

how to haggle with armed police/army without bribing them

how not to panic when your plane lands in a airport where martial law has just been announced

how to strike up a conversation with anyone - which was/is hard for me as I am basically very shy. Actually this was probably the most single useful thing I learnt from them.

We were expats for most of my childhood, which is why it is quite an odd list.

I can shuffle cards like a croupier.

Oh, I can change a lock and plumb in a washing machine, too.

All of the skills needed to run and maintain / decorate a home. Plus 'if you don't have the money for it, houses excepted, don't buy it'.
Oh, and ballroom dancing and touch-typing lessons.

It's all about the journey, not the destination.
Be as determined as you like, but also be versatile.
As a result, I'm nowhere near where I wanted. I'm going to get there one day, and I'm still loving every step.

Cooking, baking, ironing, plug wiring and a bit of gardening.

My Dad also started DH if on some DIY stuff as FIL was pants.

I ended up teaching DH the basics of cooking as his Mum did everything for the family. DH now cooks all the time and is a bit into it! PIL refused to believe he was doing the cooking for the first about 3 years he learned.

My parents were pretty good at practical skills, but not great at building self esteem or confidence. I've inherited their worrier tendencies and also because they always talk about people I worry what they think of me all the time. Actually what everyone thinks.

squizita- I'm intrigued (despite living in London, and neither owning nor knowing how to use an air rifle) What do you do about that tiger?

My mum - how to budget, cook, learn to do anything from a book and giving it a try, fold towels, time management.
My Dad - how to fix a car (usual tyres, oil, water plus tuning the engine, oil change, break pads & calipers, air filters and alternators), poker, mahjong, shuffle cards, choose a good wine, how to programme.

How to cook, how to change a tire and check spark plugs, oil and water.
Never to be late.

My mum taught me to read

Dad told me I need to be resourceful

I find YouTube great assistance with all sorts of things I need to know

Nothing per se. But my parents were competent and brought me up to be competent and to get on with things. They gave me the outlook and independence to know that if I want to do something I could learn how and never to make excuses for not doing something.

My Dad taught me to tackle a problem one step at a time, and to argue a case for what I wanted (e.g. pocket money advance. Was years before I realised he would probably have given it to me anyway, just wanted me to justify it).
My Mum taught me to budget, and to ignore the size on clothing labels and buy what fits -and cut the label out if the number bothered me.

My dad taught me programming (we had a computer in the eatly 80s!), how to make pizza from scratch and how to bake bread.

My mum taught me cooking/cleaning/ironing, in a funny way (calling my sister and me over, saying :"girls! Lesson 276 (or whatever random number). Chicken! Dangerous stuff, this is how to avoid crosscontamination"

I am doing the sane thing with my boys now. As it seemed to work!

Same not sane, I can lay no claims to sanity, lol

How to roll a roll up

Perspective (drawing wise, rather than on life)

How to make logs out of newspaper

sarcasm

How to create a healthy meal out of £2 in 1982 - 1 german sausage (a bender) + 1 tin of heinz vegetable salad + 2 'lovely' puddings + can of cream soda = nutritious meal for 2

Strawberry remain exceptionally still. If it has eaten and views you as too pathetic to bother with that's good (if you're facing a man eater you're dead though soz). The key, key thing is under no circumstances try to scare it with the rifle. The tiger will just get pissed off.

I had a great uncle who used to deal with problem animals (tigers, crocodiles, buffalo. .. ones that ate or gored farmers regularly) in India. Dealt with in the mob sense. He advised my dad, who in turn told me.

This advice did actually save my dad's life (or the tiger just didn't see him haha) when he was out hunting birds (luckily without his dog).

That's a bit disappointing I thought you had to shoot it in the eye or something.

A love of knowledge just for the sake of it.

How to find out things I don't know.

The importance of education.

Nothing practical like DIY or car maintenance or cooking from scratch but I have the skills to learn these things when I need them.

Never break a promise you give to a child.
What you give to one child you give to the other.
Don't discuss what you earn with anyone else.
Always try to save something out of your income - even if it is only a farthing!
Be kind to old people.

As an only child of older parents I was taught to amuse myself and enjoy my own company - this has stood me in very good stead over the years.

My father always taught me that it does not matter if you do not know something, as long as you know how to find it out.

'Never a borrower or a lender be!'

'Use your own initiative'

I am interested to learn that so many of you were taught to change a car wheel - DH insisted on this before DD were allowed to drive the family car!

My mum taught me to read and understand a lot of words.

Once mum taught me to read well, she felt her job was done and I could fend for myself.

My auntie and grandma taught me to make home remedies and about foraging and my aunties boyfriend taught me about electrics and basically how to fix anything.

I've done okay, it helped me more than school.

My mother taught me to cook, out of self preservation, she could not cook for shit, I taught myself so we did not all starve to death, I could get a hot meat , 3 veg & potato meal for six on the table by the time I was 8 yrs old. She taught me how to sew & knit because all our clothes were home made, the only house work she ever did was the washing so I taught myself how to clean house and do dishes because I could not stand the smell and mess from the dirty dishes & all her cats.

I'm totally with OP, my parents were the same!

As well as making an excellent G&T, my lovely parents also taught me how to be a good host, a good friend and to see the silver lining in every possible situation with a little resilience too. No practical skills though unfortunately and to be fair they might have been handy, I am probably the least domesticated 40 something I know!

(also sitting in dishevelled poverty, although a tad early for a gin & tonic, Sunday rules though, only have to wait until lunchtime..)

I can make a smooth cheese sauce every time with no lumps