Mumsnet users tell IKEA which life skills they'd like to teach their children

[JustineBMumsnet]

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Summer is often a time parents spend more time with their children and it can be a great opportunity to teach life skills: whether that’s cooking, reading, drawing, gardening, or maybe even playing a sport. But, with parents spending more time with their children than ever and home education due to lockdown, many have taken to teaching their children life skills as well as their academic learning. IKEA would like to hear about the life skills you’ve taught - or would like to teach - your children.

Here’s what Marie Tenglund, Interior Design Leader at IKEA has to say: “The ‘Wonderful everyday’ has never been more in focus than it is in our homes today. With so many of us having to support our children with school education at home, try also using this time to broaden the spectrum of learning.

At IKEA we believe teaching children life skills is really important. Sustainable living tops the list for us, so with summer arriving early – try growing produce, outside or inside whilst having fun, experimenting and learning. Harvest your crop together, use it to cook together and finally teach them how to sustainably get rid of waste as you complete the full circle.

Changing your lightbulbs to energy efficient ones, encourage the use or re-usable water bottles, labelling your leftovers in see-through containers for less waste are all simple life skills to share with your children.

Often it’s the smaller things that are easy to do but will have a large impact if we all do it together.”

Would you like to ensure your children have an impressive repertoire of meals they can cook? Perhaps you’d like them to have a healthy understanding of how to budget? Maybe you’re keen for them to learn how to make the perfect cup of tea for very non-selfish reasons? How does your children’s age affect the life skills you’d like to teach them?

Whatever life skills you’ve taught or would like to teach your children, share with IKEA in the thread below and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 IKEA voucher.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

How to meal plan and budget - two life skills which would have massively improved my own life!

For me, it's 2 things. Firstly appreciation of others... appreciating we are all different, from different families and backgrounds and cultures. Ensuring this is looked past and they treat and appreciate all equally.
Secondly, resilience: knowing that life will be hard and that is okay! It's okay to struggle and that they do have the power and strength within to get through difficult times.

When they are old enough I encourage them to help me cook. They now have a love of discovering new dishes to make and a passion for baking. It is vitally important to teach this skill so that as they become independent they are not relying on ready meals. I also teach them how to plan a week's meals - using leftovers, half onions, etc.

That if you take time to do a little research or watch a YouTube video you can usually find out how to do a "fix" yourself and save a lot of money.

Being prepared to have a go at doing things yourself, whether it's DIY, cooking or a problem with the car!

• How to cook cheap and healthy food
• How to keep the house clean
• To be kind to everyone regardless of status or friendship

Critical thought- especially now there are so many sources of information.
Budgetingtime planning and organationl skills

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Supposed to say....
Budgeting
Time planning
Organisation skills

I've been teaching my two boys the importance of team work. Little things like when I'm tidying up I make them help and explain that if we all do it together it's quicker and fairer!

We've been encouraging gardening and making him responsible for the tomatoes! We've been doing more cooking together and, since upgrading to a quieter vacuum, he's keen to get involved in that!

I have been teaching them some baking skills. So far we made biscuits, brownies and some simple cakes too. They have fun whilst learning how to bake. Plus their creations have been delicious too!

How to follow instructions properly. This is helping them learn how to cook as they can follow a recipe (which is great in itself because they love making me cake and all i have to do is help put it in / out the oven). It helps build furniture and it’s help him become a master at lego building by himself so i get ti enjoy the cake! He also knows sometimes certain parts of the instructions are guidance not rules. Baking has especially taught him this as he will often experiment with flavours

I would say that resilience and self worth is vital.

Cooking from scratch, personal hygiene, washing and laundry, shopping and budgeting, saving, using public transport, conversation skills.

We home educate our youngest children and not only is it fun, but we teach them the things that they will actually one day use!
My ten year old can ,make simple meals from scratch, use the washing machine, knows how to unblock a sink, can put up shelves (with help lol) theres nothing we don't teach them...our kids can pick up so much if you make it fun and have patience...I get so much pleasure from seeing my kids confidence when they make a really nice simple dinner or help me with the washing or mending.
I was the thickest teenager when I was growing up, I knew nothing, I really wanted to make sure my own lot never felt as stoopid as their Mum! lol x

Oldest dc helps me peel potatoes and along with his younger brother we make shopping list. We finally went shopping together and made sure we bought everything on the list. After only Dh doing shopping by himself it was enjoyable to do this task ourselves. At 10am where there are less people around.

Every morning at breakfast we talk about what we aim to do that day. Planning is very important to me and to dh dismay ds1 has inherent that from me.

Ds1 can make himself breakfast (mixing weetabix with milk and honey) and the two oldest do a lot of tidying around the house (but make more mess). They are good at measuring out ingredients and naming them (which is repetitive and slowly me down but will be worth it in the end (at least that is what I tell myself)).

How to
Cook some cheap and tasty meals
Grow food
Appreciate nature and reduce impact on the earth
Live minimally and appreciate non-material things
Spend wisely, budget and save up for quality things that last
Repair things - clothes, electrics, tools
Live intentionally and look after and pursue the things that matter/will make their life meaningful

I want to teach my kids all the life skills . The biggest one is to be able to cook for themselves, nothing fancy, but a nice (healthy) evening meal. However I also want them to be able to use the washing machine, use power tools safely, be able to do minor repairs around the house etc.
Another massive one is I really want them to be able to manage their own finances. I've not been great with money but my husband has taught me a lot and I want my children to be more like him.

Cooking skills
How to clean and do laundry.
How to budget
How to be kind and compassionate, but not a doormat.
To give, but not be taken from

There's nothing more important IMO than getting children involved in and excited about cooking. Being able to cook and feed yourself is a really invaluable skill. I know people who lived of instant mash and pot noodles when they first moved out... it took them years to realise cooking was actually doable and beneficial. It also adds a simple and wholesome pleasure to life, having home made food on the go. Some of my earliest memories are helping my dad make bread and I always think back to that fondly.

Definitely cooking, and cooking on a budget too.

Proper budgeting. No one told me about tax, NI, pensions, loans, interest rates, mortgages etc. My first pay day I got quite a shock to see how much of it went in HMRC’s direction

our girls are 8 and 10 and have always "helped" build our furniture, now they are older their helping is helping!!
We have also taught from a young age the need to budget. Each holiday they have their own spending money which has to last all holiday. Both girls are very good at waiting to see if they find a certain item for a cheaper price.
The next thing we would like to teach them is more independence when it comes to cooking/making hot drinks. They are older now so can start helping with the chopping and things so this is a life skill we plan to continue improving

I would like to teach my child practical skills such as DIY, cookery, gardening and taking care of finances, but also "soft" skills like confidence, resilience and patience, all of which help with success with the practical skills.

I taught my children to just have a go at anything. All of them can cook, decorate and use a drill. Biggest lesson, knowing when to get a professional in!

I intend to teach my children the value of money and how to live within your means.

We work hard to save for what we have and to save for when they turn 18. I hope that when they turn 18 and have control over their savings accounts that they will use the money wisely, maybe even reinvest it into further savings.

I always wish my parents had sat me down and told me the reality of being an adult and being financially responsible for yourself. After getting myself into debt and working hard to get out of it, I hope to change my family tree and teach my children to be responsible with money.

How to budget, cook, do the laundry, Clean, basic maintenance and how to decorate the house and generally be self sufficient.