As a parent, there is only one thing you want for your child: the best. You want the absolute best for them in absolutely every scenario that you can possibly fathom (and beyond). From the second you find out you are due a little one this becomes the crux of every decision you make in life because you know they deserve nothing less than the best. You want to raise your kids to have every opportunity to be happy and successful. You want to give them as many skills as possible to give them the biggest range of choice knowing that the more options they have the more fulfilling their life will be. It means sending them to the best schools with the most engaging teachers so that they learn how to be the best versions of them. After all, the goal of true education is to breed intelligence plus character.

Unfortunately, we can’t hope to instill in our children every skill under the sun and we can’t expect schools to teach them all you need to know. Saying that there are some absolutely must-know life skills that every parent should make a proactive effort to teach their offspring, especially in their teenage years.

Yes, we’re talking about things like throw a ball, ride a bike, learn an instrument, make a den and drive a car with a manual transmission. But we’re also talking about even more essential life skills than these, the kind that will help your child navigate the real world with confidence and awareness while ensuring they blossom into a respectful, responsible and absolutely wonderful member of, well, society.

With that said (and enough pressure heaped onto your already weighed-down shoulders) here is our list of essential life skills every mum and dad should teach their children before they reach adulthood and take on the real world by themselves.

We Never Stop Learning

Do you ever get that daunting realization that you only really started to get a thirst for learning after you finished formal education? At school, learning felt like a chore where our memories were tested in the form of exams and, as such, we couldn’t wait to finish and enter the world of adulthood. But that’s when we realized that we really enjoyed learning new things. That’s when we learned that reading and learning opened our eyes to other things and made us smarter. That’s when we realized that learning doesn’t have to involve a textbook and is best done through life experiences. Teach your child this as much as possible. Teach them to never stop learning. Teach them to be open-minded, perceptive to new ideas, sympathetic to negative experiences and how to spot a good role-model.

Cooking Is An Amazing Skill

The ability to feed ourselves nutritious and delicious meals is one of the most – if not the most – essential life skill any of can hope to learn. This is what will help them survive on their own when that day comes, whether it be moving out or heading off to college. As such, make a conscious effort to teach them a few of the basic meals and then grow from there. The other thing that makes this such an important skill to teach is the fact it is one of the most valuable activities a family can engage in together. It is a bonding time. It is sharing your knowledge through passion so make sure you invest in the things that will help you do this from a young age. It also teaches them how to be healthy and independent, and good at something that they will only get better at the more they try. That is a great feeling to have.

Managing Their Finances Responsibly

You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “Money makes the world go round.” You’ve more than likely used it a dozen times. That is because it is one of the truest statements around. Yet, for some unknown reason, our schools don’t educate children on the matter of money, and neither do many parents either. Part of the reason for this is we never got educated on it ourselves and so we don’t feel we can impart any wisdom. However, just buying a few books like The Complete Guide To Personal Finance: For Teenagers, and subscribing to websites like https://fortunateinvestor.com will stand you in good stead. How to save. How to invest. How to stay out of debt. How to be wise with credit cards. How to plan for retirement. How to budget. How to reduce student loans as fast as possible. How to manage taxes. How important it is to have an emergency fund. All of these are imperative money skills that every parent needs to (know about themselves and) teach their children.

Not Everyone Is Good At Everything

We are all born different and part of that means we all have different skills and talents and qualities. There are some things you are good at, some things you aren’t so good at, things you are the best at and things that you should just give up on. This can be infuriating pill to swallow but swallow it they must. It isn’t just infuriating for your kid, though. It is also infuriating for you as the parent. That’s because we all want to encourage our children to try everything and tell them that they will become proficient at it if they practice enough. But that isn’t the case. There are just something’s we won’t excel at through no fault of our own, and that is an important life lesson to learn and a crucial skill to accept. The important thing to teach them is that this is fine. It is good to know our weaknesses and learn how to counter these with our strengths.

To Remain As Positive As Possible

We would love to tell our kids that life is a wish-granting factory and have that be true. Unfortunately, though, life is not all singing unicorns, rose gardens and rainbow rivers. However, it is not all doom and gloom either. Life is this wonderful cocktail of good things and bad things and that is just the way it is. The important thing to teach them on this front is that by concentrating more on the positive side of things, life tends to be pretty good, which can learn more about at http://www.livestrong.com. You need to teach them the importance of having a good attitude and that if they don’t like something, not to dwell on it, but change it, and if they can’t change it then change the way they think about it. This is a skill. Absolutely. That is why you should teach them how to remain positive and teach them how to find happiness in the little things and teach them how to keep their chin up when life throws a little bit of shade their way.

This Is The Only World We Have

This is fast becoming a more and more important realization in life, but we need to make sure we teach our kids the importance of protecting the environment and caring for animals. For too long, humans have neglected both of these things. We’ve decided we’re the top of the food chain and that we can do what we want. But this is the case. As such, try and help your child – from as early as possible – that we all live on one planet and so we need to do all we can to protect it and care for it in every sense of the word. No one knows the meaning of life, and it remains one of the most hotly contested debates of all time, but leaving our world in a better state than we inherited it is surely up there. As such, try and teach your kid the skill of mindfulness and how to proactively play a role in the betterment of the environment.

These are all absolutely vital skills that we should all try and adopt. They are almost impossibly important. Unfortunately, though, they aren’t part of any curriculum in schools, which is why it is up to us as parents to usher these essential life skills into the vocabulary of our not-so-little ones.