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

Cooking. My 3 year old is already taking an interest in this.

So be as independent as possible, in terms of cooking from scratch and not relying in microwaves, budgeting so all bills are paid, and to be confident enough to love themselves - and ignore what others think about them.

Always paying the rent/mortgage first.

Have a rainy day fund.
When meeting new people, even if you seem to having nothing in common with them - try to be a better listener than talker and more often than not, something will come up that you can chat about.

Self-discipline and a robust sense of self.

We’ve learned ratios and fractions whilst doing cooking, and engineering skills whilst whittling and building a zoo! Over the summer, we’ll continue with the natural world and geology identifying and observing animals, plants and rocks. He can draw and label them. He wants to be David Attenborough so his life skills are ones found outdoors seeing how nature works.

Cleaning up after themselves and not being afraid to ask questions.

How to read animal's body language and adjust your behaviour around them accordingly.

I'd like them to understand how to plan and budget a project.

How to read a map; how to navigate your way in a new place.

How to enjoy the outdoors whatever the weather.

I want to teach my children as many life skills as I can. Cooking is a useful skill in so many ways and it was helpful over lockdown whilst I was working for my five year old to be able to make toast whilst I was working.
In terms of sustainability, we try to make do and mend where possible. We have bought and sold furniture (including Ikea) second hand.
I try not to put anything into landfill and I am trying to bring up my children to have what they need - over consumption is vulgar.
I also do some of the sustainability tips that Ikea shared a while ago - use old kettle water to fill my watering can etc. Simple habits which hopefully make a difference.

It would always be cooking for me. Such a vital life skill. We seem to focus on cakes and baking a bit too much when actually knowing how to whip up a quick pasta sauce is really important too!

A couple of things are really important.
Cooking, to be able to make a bolognaise or shepherds pie, or a pasta sauce is really important. And budgeting, learning what’s cheap and how to utilise basic ingredients will see you far! With my ds going off to uni this year that’s what I’ve been trying to teach him.....oh year - and how to clean , wash and iron!!

The list is huge but includes:
Cooking and an understanding of nutrition
DIY
Laundry and cleaning
Sewing. So many of my friends won't even sew on a button and just buy a new one!
How to make small talk. I'm awful at this so maybe DH needs to teach it but being able to chat to anyone confidently and make a connection is a skill I wish I had.
Budgeting
Ability to research and learn
Gardening. Another thing I wish I was better at.
Appreciating what they have and looking after it - whether that's toys, their home, the world around them...

Budgeting. I learnt the hard way (massive and completely unnecessary credit card bills, now paid off) and I’m determined my kids will be be taught about financial responsibility from a young age.

DH and I look after s SN child. We have taught him how to listen, how to control his emotions and to communicate when he is upset and no need to hit out. We have taught him how to ask for the things he wants nicely as he is more likely to get them. How to read a book and this has taken many years for him to do. How to stick to a task when it is hard and not to give up. To value the things that are hard to achieve. To walk away when he feels like hitting someone. To share his successes and his disappointments. To be kind whenever he can. To value those that love him.

I was thinking about exactly this today. I wish I had been taught simple DIY skills like drilling walls, grouting/tiling. I would have been a lot more confident doing that kind of stuff today, living as a single mum. Also definitely how to budget! So this will all come at my DD as soon as I think it's appropriate.

For me the priority is the really basic day to day stuff - self care and keeping a home clean. Growing up with two parents who didn’t do that stuff, and being autistic/adhd myself, it’s been hard to build these habits as an adult. My DCs have various SN and I worry about them living independently as it is, so anything I can get ingrained will help. They’ve been fully managing their own laundry for a couple of years (they’re 13 and 10 and we gradually built up to it) but we’ve used lockdown to start a proper chore schedule for all of us so they get used to doing more tasks regularly, it includes helping with dinner sometimes too so they can keep building cooking skills that way.

The other things I want to focus on are managing money (especially my eldest who struggles with maths), and also stress management. Not just distracting oneself but accepting different emotions, working on their wellbeing etc. Not sure if that counts as a life skill in the sense that’s being asked here but it’s important to me. :o

I’d like to teach my children to be caring and considerate adults with skills like cooking, being kind to others and sharing with those in need.

Hi! I spent the locked down Easter holidays, when furloughed, teaching my 10 year old daughter to cook simple meals from scratch.
Now I'm back working (from home) I'm grateful that she is cooking 4/5 meals a week. Great result!

Being able to research and draw his own conclusions critically.
Being able to rephrase concepts in his own words.
Changing and making his bed and knowing how the washing machine works.
Making simple meals and setting and clearing the table.
Picking salad and herbs from the garden.

Definitely how to organise a home, utilising space, flat pack, diy skills, painting, wallpapering (my mum taught me) & simple house jobs like light bulbs etc etc

One of the life skills I have passed on to my daughter is bargain hunting - looking for special offers, comparing prices and deals, and calculating if it is more economical to buy, for example, one large tin or two small tins in the supermarket.

As a one parent family I need my dds to be able to be as self sufficient as they can to help me out as I work full time. Planning ahead and making their own lunches, making sure they've got clothes for the next day and ensuring their work is done ready for the next day are really important.
They also are learning how to cook, being able to sustain yourself is really quite important and I think sharing the load of cooking makes it more enjoyable for the whole family!

Being able to make a meal (obviously I do all the cutting where it's sharp knives, and use of anything that might pose a risk, i.e. using the hob), cleaning up afterwards also picking out healthy food from the shop, and working to budget. Hopefully at some point when she wants to move away from Mum it will stand her in good stead. When I took cookery class we were told how to make plain pasta, apple crumble and coleslaw (not exactly healthy!)

I'm Swedish.

So, teaching your kids how to master the sometimes mind boggling, hair pulling, art of assembling Ikea furniture, is definitely a good skill to have, when it comes to patience.

It might sound silly. But whenever I've accomplished to build any furniture from Ikea, big or small, using the instructions, I feel this sense of achievement and self confidence.

I really believe, with great patience, comes victory, and that is what Ikea have shown. And it is a great life skill to have. Letting kids build or assemble things, is a great way of helping them gain independency and self confidence.

Cooking
Baking
Use a sewing machine
Basic home decoration.
Laundry
Cleaning
..... Just how to be a functioning adult really

Independent thought. Fact checking.
Decorating. DIY -though her lego experience means she's quite good at flatpack.