When you have a kid, you realise the scale of the responsibility that falls on you. It’s not only about their safety and well-being but also their education. Yes, you heard me right. I mean, how many times in life did you need the parabola knowledge your geometry teacher made you learn?
And how many times have you thought of some crash course on doing your taxes? If only you had listened to your teacher when they explained that! Oh wait, you never had those lessons. No one ever does. See what I’m driving at? School teaches us stuff we’ll forget tomorrow and doesn’t say anything about things that will make our lives easier.
So, giving our children the skills and knowledge that aren’t in the school curricula becomes our main responsibility. Here are the main points I focus on in my parenting, and I really wish that pretty much every parent would focus on that, too.
This is a collaborative post.
Financial literacy
The biggest mistake you can make with money is introducing it to your child too late. You should start with the basic money concepts as early as preschool (3-5 years old). You could talk about what money is and how one earns it and introduce the concepts of budgeting, saving, and investing. Here’s how it looks in more detail:
- Ages 3-5: Talk about the concept of money and its basic functions. You could use physical coins and bills to teach your child to count.
- Ages 6-10: Show your child they could earn money through chores or small jobs. Introduce saving concepts and goal setting. We also teach the differences between needs vs. wants.
- Ages 11-13: Introduce more complex concepts like budgeting and bank accounts. Discuss the importance of responsible spending and saving habits. Teach your kid the 50/30/20 rule: 50% for needs, 30% for wants, 20% for savings and debt repayment.
- Ages 14-18: It is high time you talked about credit, investment, and long-term financial planning. That’s also the right time to talk about taxes and financial responsibility.
Use any opportunity to explain budgeting, comparison shopping, and financial decision-making. Walk them through reading and understanding utility and credit card bills and teach them the importance of paying bills on time. For teens, demonstrate how to set up automatic payments to avoid late fees.
Emotional intelligence and mental health
We all come from the times when talking about your mental health in public automatically labelled you as schizophrenic. Times change, and your child needs to know that discussing your mood and overall mental health is normal. Start by discussing it openly within your family.
- Ages 2-5: This is a perfect age to start teaching about self-awareness by using emotional words and facial expressions to identify feelings. You could create and use a “motion meter” or emotion chart so that your kids can visualise and identify their feelings. Remember to model talk about your own feelings to normalise emotional expression.
- Ages 6-8: Start teaching stress management. Engage in fun stress management activities and practise these techniques together as a family through apps like Headspace for Kids or Calm. Encourage physical activity and muscle relaxation techniques as a stress reliever. Introduce the concept of personal boundaries and teach to respect the boundaries of other people, including you.
- Ages 8-10: Teach your children to realise when they need help (persistent sadness, difficulty coping) and explain different types of mental health professionals and what they do.
Remember to start these practices when needed and take them through adolescence, developing more complex and deeper strategies.
Digital literacy and technology
It’s a wild digital world out there, and it’s as unsafe as the real one. We must equip our children with the skills and knowledge to navigate it safely.
- Ages 3-7: No need to throw complicated terms on your little one. Use simple analogies and tell them that the internet is like a big playground where not everyone is their friend. Tell them they mustn’t share their personal information there, just like they wouldn’t tell a stranger their address.
- Ages 8-12: Talk about technical footprints and show how easy it is to find info about people online and the consequences it can lead to. Set the privacy settings together on their devices and social media accounts.
- Ages 13-18: Have honest conversations about online predators and the risk of oversharing. Encourage them to think before they post. Teaching critical thinking is paramount. You could do it by playing the “spot the ad” game when browsing or using the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose) to evaluate online sources.
However, it is important to find the necessary information, especially in an emergency. Together with critical thinking, being proactive in finding the needed info online is a baseline. This way, your child won’t depend on others in decision-making and will be able to do their own research to compare data and information.
So as an adult, by simply googling: “How many solar panels do I need” before the installer shows up or while calculating the budget, they can prepare themselves without any third-party help.
Health and wellness
With this, you can’t start too early. The key is to be consistent and make each activity as fun and engaging as possible and, of course, lead by example.
- Ages 2-5: As early as toddlerhood, you can start talking about nutrition and teach your kids about the necessity of consuming veggies, fruit, meat and liquids. As for movement, your main task is to make it fun. Throw dance parties in the living room, play tag in the backyard, or go on “adventure walks” in the neighbourhood. Remember to introduce hygiene by singing songs while washing hands and making bath time an adventure.
- Ages 6-12: As your kids get older, teach them about reading labels at the grocery store. As for physical activity, let your kids try different sports and activities at least twice before they decide they like it. Remember to introduce the importance of daily hygiene routines.
When it comes to teens, the best thing to do is to respect their privacy. Encourage questions and open dialogue, be consistent in your messaging and allow them to take control in their routine.
There are quite a few more topics to discuss, but you should decide for yourself. Which skills did you lack as a kid? Teach them to your child, and remember that every child is unique. What worked for you might not work for them, so be flexible and patient.