One minute, you’re tying their shoelaces. The next, they’re thinking about getting driving lessons and debating student loans.
Helping your teen transition into adulthood can feel like handing them the controls to a high-speed train. You want to make sure you do everything in your power to usher them toward a life of accomplishment and ensure they can handle whatever life has in store for them.
So, how do you get them ready for real life living in GB?
We’ve put together some helpful insights.
Practical Life Skills: The Toolkit for Independence
Encourage them to step up their level of personal responsibility. Teaching your teen the most basic survival skills, such as how to cook, budget, clean, and carry out basic DIY tasks, is like giving them a toolbox they’ll use every day, independent of parental involvement.
Start early and let them make mistakes now, not when it’s midnight in a university flat and they’ve just tried to microwave soup in a tin.
In addition to those, help them take responsibility for some mundane life tasks, like maintaining a calendar, meeting deadlines, and filling out forms. While you can supervise these matters throughout their childhood and adolescence, once they’re in university, they must know how to manage them on their own.
Do you know why they’re so important for your child’s preparation to go out into the world? It’s because owning these responsibilities signifies a readiness to begin feeling, thinking and behaving like an adult.
Need a checklist? These 11 life skills every teen should have are a great place to begin.
Financial Responsibility and Navigating the Cost-of-Living
Teach your teen how to open a bank account, understand interest, use debit cards responsibly, and budget for fun and essentials.
In a world of rising expenses, financial literacy has become imperative. Organisations like Young Enterprise offer valuable resources to support this journey.
Be role models for them and show them how it’s done. When they’re on their own, they’ll have no trouble assuming the broader range of administrative tasks that adulthood requires.
Learning the nuances of financial and administrative tasks takes time, but once they get the hang of it, it is a reassuring sign that your child is up to the task, without your oversight. You can now rest assured that your child can navigate day-to-day life at university.
Emotional Resilience: The Unsung Superpower
Adult life is unpredictable. From social pressures to academic setbacks, teens need some helpful tools under their belt to manage stress and stay grounded.
Allow your children to have open conversations, encourage mindfulness, and help them recognise when to seek support.
Resources like Calm Health are useful for parents navigating this terrain alongside their teens.
Driving Independence (and Insuring It)
Learning to drive is a huge rite of passage — and a step towards full independence. Along with the responsibility of the road comes the cost of being on it. That’s where temporary learner driver insurance comes in. It’s a smart, flexible way to protect your child (and your car) while they gain confidence behind the wheel.
For more on fostering road independence, see this guide on supporting your teen’s driving journey.
Most importantly, give your child the confidence to be on their own. Let them take responsibility. Follow through, but don’t oversee everything. This will allow your child to ‘own’ those tasks and responsibilities. And you’ll soon realise that your young transitioner is ready to steer their own ship.
Be gentle. How many of us really understood the nuts and bolts of how the world actually works when we were 16 or 17? Start with the practical, support the emotional, and don’t forget the insurance.