I learned typing when I was 16. I was picked as #1 or #2 to go to short hand and typing competition my senior year, which when I first learned it. So it’s possible to learn that late. But I’ve regressed to one finger pecking now.
In HS I took a full year typing class as I thought it would prepare me for a job. Rather misguided, as I was not good at it in terms of accuracy or fast rate-this was manual typewriters, not electric. In retrospect has become the most used skill from HS, as I can touch type fast on computers, no glancing, unless using symbols.
After reading the previous discussion about cars, I was pondering this. As I ponder many places my poor offspring come up lacking in the skills department-though they are more highly skilled than some of their peers… I had so much I wanted to share, and it seemed the time was never sufficient. One of the rough things about joint custody for young kids is that unless both parents are teaching skills the other parent is rushing through what needs to be learned and done in far less time.
Cars-how to change a tire, check the oil, inflate the tires, and where to find the PSI and use a tire gauge. The purpose of all the dipsticks under the engine hood. How to clean a windshield effectively. How the major systems work on a car, so as to understand the details when mechanic talks to you about what is wrong with your vehicle.
Bikes, changing a flat, ride with gears,
Household. Laundry, including stain removal, bleach use, how to iron a shirt or pants. How to sew on a button or mend a seam.
How to clean a bathroom, dust, vacuum, get kitchen counters spotless, and wash windows.
Basic lawn care. How to grow a few of your own food items.
The basics of mail and thank you notes. Check writing. I was once supervising a not unintelligent young man writing a thank you note. he had no clue how to address the envelope or where the return address belonged.
Essential cooking skills, including the basics of a few different meals and how to follow a recipe and understand common ingredients from a variety of cultures.
How to observe a situation and figure out how to be of help.
@“great lakes mom”
Many items on your list are geared towards suburban kids. My city kids wouldn’t know anything about cars or lawns.
When when we lived in Europe & biked everywhere, none of us were prepared to change a flat.
Hey, GMT, your kids have other skills. Landing in a city in Asia and making one’s way despite language barriers is a special skill all it’s own.
Lawns are a very American thing. A newly divorced friend was rather intimidated by lawn mowing recently, and I was thinking of how that is a rather basic skill, unless you’ve never done it. My family owned cars in Thailand and there are car skills associated with driving and owning a car in Asia, much less driving in Bangkok, that are beyond my ken.
Having gotten myself in trouble biking before I started carrying a patch kit and pump, I decided it is essential. Not so much in town where I can call a friend, but when biking in places where I don’t know anyone.
Lawns are no longer a California thing. (Unless this is a really big El Niño like they promise.)
My youngest just graduated High School and she learned cursive writing, took home and careers (a modern take on home economics) and also learned to type in elementary school. Both of my kids are very fast typists, whereas I just fake it.
“How to grow a few of your own food items.”
I don’t see that as any kind of life skill. People may do it for fun, or as a hobby, which is great, but really, I have a supermarket on every corner. I don’t need to grow my own food any more than I need to make my own clothes.
- Effortlessly look a stranger in the eye, give a firm handshake, smile, state your name and say "pleasure to meet you".
- Proper hygiene and grooming. Hair, teeth, skin, nails.
- Shop for food and prepare basic, healthy meals.
- Clean up after yourself in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.
- Time management. Wake yourself up in the morning. Leave for school with time to spare once you arrive. Pace yourself on assignments. Turn school work in on time. Get adequate sleep.
- Know how to find your happy place without drugs or alcohol. Happiness is an inside job. Take the time to do whatever it takes to restore your peace of mind.
- Be comfortable with saying "no, thank you" if you are not interested in participating.
- Do your own laundry and know how to iron a garment.
- Fill your car's gas tank, check the oil, wash it inside and out.
- Get the proper info if you are in a fender bender. Insurance, driver's license, phone number, photos of damage.
- Never hesitate to call 911 if there is an emergency. Better safe than sorry.
- Never drink and drive and never get in a vehicle if the driver is under the influence. It's always OK to call home for a ride, even if it's three in the morning.
- Be the sort of house guest that would be welcomed to return anytime.
- Be comfortable traveling across country alone. Know how to navigate airports. Check in, boarding passes, id, security, gate changes, connecting flights, baggage pick up, baggage claims.
- Always use proper protection if you choose to have sex. 16.. Nothing is the end of the world. You won't remember that you got a 78 on your calculus final when you are 50.
In my list of priorities, which may be a little out of a limb for some people, understanding what is involved in growing and processing food is a valuable life skill. Connecting young people to the natural world and having the skills to negotiate interactions with nature is one of my values. Hey, I was a back to the land wanna be way back when. Old habits die hard!
Of course, that presumes that one has the skill of realizing whether the situation is an emergency.
@hiislandmom that list seems the most practical and doable given the original context of this thread.
In re: typing, I personally hated those typing games in elementary and middle school, and I couldn’t type without looking at my hands until I started using a typewriter. There’s a lot of touch-screen typing going on these days, but not a lot of real touch-typing (which is the name I learned for the typing style where your index fingers go on f and j and your thumb sits on the space bar).
This presumes that the person at home would be sober enough to drive – not an assumption you can make in every family.
My kids learned to type with the program, Mavis Bacon, plus a few other computer games. D is a very quick typist and I think she’s mostly a touch typist, as am I. H and S do a lot of hunting and pecking, but since they are STEM nerds, they don’t have to type as much as I and D who aren’t. 
Lots of people nowadays never formally learned to type and type laboriously with hunt and peck, sometimes with one or two fingers (with a long paper/report, that seems quite tedious). I think it’s harder to learn to type if you already have bad habits of hunting and pecking.
I think D learned how to type quickly (& I assume accurately) because she plays a lot of role-playing computer games where they write enormous scripts and she likes to be active in those. When she was ill and bed-ridden, at least she felt involved if she could play on the computer when she felt able to and it helped her keep somewhat connected with the outside world.
I had the option of being the only female in the BOYS shop class or taking typing in 8th grade. I opted for typing, which has been a very useful skill. The keys at the typewriter I sat at in class were totally blank, so looking at blank keys didn’t tell me anything about what the letter or number or character I was typing. We were also docked a letter grade for ANY error we made, no matter what speed we typed at. We were allowed “extra credit” for typing things the teacher needed to have typed, otherwise probably would have flunked since I was very fast and inaccurate and we couldn’t use whiteout (thankfully, we could use high quality erasable paper without instructor realizing).
I am still not too handy at repairing things around the house, but fortunately have married a wonderful man who IS handy and enjoys most parts of home maintenance and we hire for the parts he no longer enjoys (like automotive & plumbing, tho he KNOWS how to do that too).
Intentionally, like [this keyboard](Das Keyboard 4C Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard), or unintentionally, because all of the markings had been worn off due to heavy use?
No, I believe the keyboards that my friend and I were assigned were intentionally blank. Of course all the male jocks in the class (which made up the rest of the class) had normal kwerty keyboards. My friend and I were still the fastest and probably the most accurate typists in the class.
One other good thing about that class is that the textbook has us writing cover letters, business forms, and a lot of other things that were useful later in life. The touch typing is still great, though I do cheat and peek at the top row (numbesr & symbols). I can type while talking and looking at things other than the keyboard, which is very handy, especially when balancing a keyboard and ipad mini on my lap.
Me, too. But I sometimes wonder what would happen if I had to go back to typing on a typewriter. People who learned on typewriters had to be very careful and accurate, which limited our speed. On a computer, we type in a more uninhibited fashion (and probably a lot faster) because errors can be corrected so easily. I’m not sure whether I could get my accuracy back if I had to use a typewriter.
Yes, I still remember my 1st summer job, when I had to complete forms and letters that had literally many pages of carbon paper and different colored copies. When I made a mistake, I had to use the appropriate colored correction fluid or tape for EACH page! It took me a day to type most forms with all the corrections and confirmed the test that showed I was awful at clerical speed AND accuracy. It was the only clerical job I ever had, other than doing some typing for modest sums in college and then typing my drafts as an attorney on a typewriter. I now excluseively use a keyboard as we no longer own a typewriter. My dad’s office has ONE typewriter, so they can type the few things that esier to complete on a typewriter rather than using the computer.
I am SO GLAD not to have to manually correct. That was very tedious but I think it made us better editors and more careful about the drafts BEFORE we typed our final versino. Editting was much more of a pain and there weren’t so many rewrites before final copy.
I found this humorous only because @Hlmom’s post is about being
Being able to fix a car is not as important as being able to detect something is wrong. I’ve done minor fixes on my car - a hose sprung a leak and I took off the clamp and adjusted it and replaced it. I can add oil. I can add windshield washer fluid. I don’t know many people at all who change their own oil or anything beyond that. I can change a tire, and I did get help from my now 18 year old to do so last time, walking him through it in case he needs to know.
As for calling home for a ride, I guess it does matter if the person at home is sober, but the corollary is to have enough money for a cab or be close enough to home to walk. In general, my friends would be more likely to drink at other friends’ houses, so if you were drunk and didn’t have a ride, you’d just sack out at the host’s house. Depending upon public transportation to “go to the city” when at college is a good idea, but making sure you are in a group is important (UVA case 
).
What to do in a mental health crisis. Self or other’s. So much mental illness in students these days.