Preparing Teens for Adulthood: Essential Life Skills Every Parent Should Teach

This post is part two of our series: Preparing Teens for Independence and Success. If you missed it, you can check out part one: The parent's role in self-reliance.

The Challenge of Transitioning to Adulthood

The Problem

The transition from high school to adulthood is daunting for both teens and their parents. Many parents worry that their teen isn’t equipped with the life skills they need to thrive on their own—things like budgeting, cooking, and time management.

A study from The National Endowment for Financial Education revealed that 63% of teens feel unprepared to manage their finances, and 52% don’t feel ready to handle basic household tasks.

Those statistics are both really high!

Why It Matters

When teens aren’t equipped with basic life skills, they risk becoming overwhelmed or dependent as they venture into adulthood. In fact, The Journal of Youth and Adolescence reports that young adults who lack life skills are at a higher risk of experiencing stress, financial difficulties, and poor mental health during the transition to independent living.

Equipping Teens with Life Skills

Here are a few helpful ways that parents can help equip their teens with the crucial life skills they need.

Time Management

The ability to manage time effectively is one of the most critical life skills. Help your teen organize their schedule, prioritize tasks, and set realistic deadlines. A Pew Research study found that time management was one of the top skills for success in adulthood, correlating with higher income and job satisfaction. There is also no limit to the usefulness of good time management and it ranks high as one of the most useful skills in life.

For all the parents out there who find this skill difficult in itself, we've actually got a short course coming your way soon, so stay tuned for more details!

Financial Literacy

Understanding how to budget, save, and manage money is crucial. Encourage your teen to open a bank account, track their spending, and set up a savings plan. The Journal of Consumer Affairs found that teens who receive financial education are 25% more likely to manage their finances responsibly in adulthood.

Are you interested in learning more about financial literacy or how to teach your teenager more about financial literacy, you can sign up here to receive early access to our two new short courses.

Cooking and Household Management

Teens need to know how to prepare basic meals, do laundry, and manage a home. Without these skills, they are likely to take the cheaper, quicker, more unhealthy options as soon as they gain independence - which is not going to be good for their physical or mental health. Start small by involving them in family meals and teaching them how to handle household chores. According to The Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, teens who learn these skills early on are better equipped to live independently.

If they seem resistant at first, thinking that you are just trying to get them to do work, frame it such that you are asking them for help and that you can do it together. This also gives them an opportunity to feel like they are contributing to their lives and can increase autonomy around the household.

Self-Care and Well-Being

Teaching teens to care for their physical and emotional well-being is just as important as teaching them practical skills. Encourage good habits, like exercise, healthy eating, and stress management, so they can maintain balance in their lives. This looks like checking in on and showing interest in their hobbies, gently encouraging them to overcome their inhibitions, and offering tips in a constructive way.

Don't just do it yourself

For many parents, it requires infinitely more effort and energy to teach their kids to do something or watch them do it slowly or wrong. It's so much easier to just do it for them. We've all got stuff to do, right? Do your best not to fall into this trap. By deciding to do it for them, whether to speed things along, or spare them the discomfort or pain of failing, you can rob them of the important opportunity to develop skills or just the resilience to keep trying until they get something right.

A gentle show of support is more helpful for them long term than succeeding immediately or speeding things along.

Empowering Teens with Future Forge

Through the Future Forge course, we help teens build these life skills through hands-on learning and practical applications. Our program emphasizes responsibility, self-care, and practical tools that are essential for their future success and independence.

Our entire approach focuses on inspiring teens to take ownership and want to do these things for themselves. Unfortunately, this is where parenting can sometimes fall short. Obstacles in the relationship, power dynamics, or simple willfulness can often make parental pressure exacerbate the issue. Our approach addresses this challenge by empowering teens to develop these skills independently, allowing them to take an active role in their own growth and, in a sense, parent themselves.

Because going into the world of adulthood, it's really going to be up to them.

Ready to Help Your Teen Thrive?

If you want to help your teen prepare for the responsibilities of adulthood, explore how Future Forge teaches the skills they need for a smooth transition. Learn more about how we’re helping young people become self-sufficient, capable, and confident.

Did you find this article useful? Check out our blog, or some of these helpful links to our other topics!

Building Strong Foundations for Parent-Teen Relationships

• How to build a strong relationship with your teenager

• Prove to your teenager that you care

• Setting Boundaries with Love

• Managing Conflict and Frustration

Preparing Teens for Independence and Success

• The Parent’s Role in Building Self-Reliance

Feel free to let us know what you think or ask a question below!