<p>“If your kid knows how to use Google, they’re better off than you can imagine”</p>
<p>So true.</p>
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How to engage in editing/critical reading so you don’t repeat what you said (about not wasting time/managing time) in bullet point 1 and bullet point 3</p>
<p>Mmm…got a little dark in here. </p>
<p>I’ve told this story before on CC, but it’s worth repeating here.</p>
<p>I have a Canadian expat colleague whose kids were used to having household servants all their lives, as they lived abroad. Then the eldest went back to Canada to go to college. </p>
<p>When parents went to pick up boy at end of school year, the stench in his room nearly knocked them off their feet. Turns out son had never changed his sheets the entire school year-- was not aware that that is something that is done. The mother consoled herself knowing no girl ever slept in that bed.</p>
<p>I once heard about a mom dismayed at her son’s dingy clothes. She asked, “what kind of laundry detergent to you use at college?” He answered, “Detergent?”. Not sure how he could have missed all the other students adding detergent. Perhaps he thought it was optional 
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<p>@colorado_mom, GMTson knew about laundry detergent, but didn’t know about top-load washing machines. His first load of laundry at school, he poured the liquid laundry detergent into the clothes dryer.</p>
<p>This is my favorite thread in a long time. :)</p>
<p>When to/not to use bleach when doing laundry. My bro poured it into his load of underwear when he did his first load. then promptly went out and bought new underwear… sans holes.</p>
<p>I went to college with a girl raised in a home with servants. She did not know to not try and catch a sharp knife when you drop it! Consequence was emergency medical care for her and dull bagel knives for all the rest of us!</p>
<p>Post 12…you sleep ON the mattress…ewwww. Please get a sleeping bag at least. It is NOT hard to put a fitted sheet on a mattress. Not hard at all. Bet there is a YouTube video.</p>
<p>Wait…how does someone not understand how to put a sheet on? Like… :-/ </p>
<p>I still think there should be home economics like class in HS with cooking, financial skills, laundry, basic car maintenance, etc. We could update it by calling it “Life 101”. </p>
<p>Our kid’s high school (small independent private) used to let seniors out of regular classes for the last two weeks (no finals for seniors!) and run a mini-camp on this kind of stuff. The beloved social studies teacher taught them the ins and outs of doing laundry, another teacher did car maintenance, how to balance a checkbook, etc. They don’t do it any more…pity. </p>
<p>There was a home ec course in the dark ages when I was in middle school. Most females were assigned to it. I had the option of taking that, typing or shop. For some reason, I ended up with BOTH typing and home ec. We learned how to bake a pie (something I did once in college), and a few other domestic things, (including how to use a sewing machine and make something useful). Never took shop, so still am not particularly good with tools or making things with my hands–fortunately H is very good at it, as is S. D is able to “fake it” enough for cinema and inexpensively dress a set with minimal damage to the rental.</p>
<p>For the boys who were not too social in HS, how about teaching them how to ask a girl out to a college formal? And the tuxedo or suit and tie details, showing up on time, staying with the girl he brought, having a little cash for coat checks, hailing taxis, and escorting the date home safely.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reminder. I have to buy a small tool set for my D before she heads to school. While she doesn’t search out opportunities to use tools, she does know how.</p>
<p>As I have lamented many times, H’s parents taught him and his sibs nothing…so, he didn’t know the difference between a mattress and box spring. Guess what he slept on in college and wondered why it was so uncomfortable? lol </p>
<p>Of all horrors my son had to ask at the college post office how to address an envelope and where to put the stamp. He’d learned when he was little, but couldn’t remember. I would have loved to have seen the look on that persons face. He was mailing a card to his girlfriend for her birthday. </p>
<p>My kids also seem to not know how to actually open envelopes. They completely tear them apart when opening.</p>
<p>My kid asked for books about this stuff: Life Skills 101 is one, Adulting is the other (author has a blog with same name).</p>
<p>eyemamom: My S has the same issue with envelopes. He completely rips is apart. I’m thinking of getting him a letter opener. Of course, he’d lose it. I bought him envelopes and stamps, and he knows how to address a letter, but he told me he never mailed his medical reimbursements because he didn’t know where there was a mailbox. Seriously? I guess that’s more lazy than lack of knowledge. </p>
<p>My older D loves the book “Adulting.” She graduated this past spring and it is her manual to life. I also bought her a “Finance for Dummies” book. </p>