Dressing properly for an occasion including interviews, weddings, etc… Clothes do not have to be expensive, just appropriate and clean.
I guess I have never heard of a 16 year old giving a eulogy. I wonder how often that would happen?
Knowing how to pack appropriately and be able to fit everything into carry-ons. This includes keeping in mind the weather and occasions one will encounter in a trip.
We had a cluster of 4 car crashes involving high school students in one school year and several students were asked by the families to give the eulogy as part of the whole service.
They presented a side of the student that the parents and grandparents didn’t know.
Each delivered a very poignant speech and not a dry eye in the crowd.
Remind your kids what to do and what info to get if they’re involved in a traffic accident. And, for them to call YOU right afterwards (not after everyone has left the scene).
In addition to the “exchanging info” (DL #'s and insurance info), use phones to take pics of damage (or lack of damage!) and pics of license plates, and pics of where cars were and any skid marks, etc.
My son was recently in a fender bender and the police came, took down info, and gave my son a police report number. (this happened OOS) Because of that, my son didn’t think he needed to get all the typical info. This delayed a bunch of stuff. We weren’t able to get police report info for nearly a week. The accident happened on a Friday late afternoon.
By the following Tuesday, still w/o any info (not even the other driver’s name!!!), our insurance decided to just “get things going,” repair the car, provide a rental, and they will go after the other driver.
Son saw how his mistake delayed stuff and learned to get all info at the time.
My daughter was 17 when she gave a eulogy at my father’s funeral. She is a very talented writer and speaker and I’ve never been prouder of her. She was very, very close to my dad and I was amazed that she could do it.
I don’t think a college freshman needs any of those programmed into their phone. They need to be able to find the information if they need it, but if you have a good smartphone or otherwise have access to that information you can find the number in about 3 seconds. I guess it might be useful, perhaps, to have those numbers - but honestly, a college freshman might have more local resources that are better than those that are specific to their campus. Most of the colleges I’ve been to have rape/sexual assault crisis hotlines that can offer more immediate person-to-person help in the moment; the campus police number or the RA on call number will probably get suicide prevention services to a college freshman faster than the Trevor Project or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline will.
Usually during orientation student services will pass out information about the actual campus numbers a college freshman SHOULD have programmed into their phone:
Campus escort services (for getting home late at night)
Campus police emergency and non-emergency numbers
The rape/sexual assault crisis hotline (either the campus’s or one for the local area)
A late night crisis/peer counseling hotline if the college has one (an example is [url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/nightline/]Nightline[/url] at Columbia/Barnard)
The number to the counseling services on campus (they usually have one on-call person per night)
The number to student health services (they also usually have an on-call person per night)
How to reach the campus ambulance/emergency health services (they are often faster than the local hospital or city ambulance services)
But the most important number to have programmed in is the RA on-call number, because the RA will have access to ALL of these services and will know the best one to connect to in a crisis.
Good one, @HImom. Being able to navigate to and in an airport is all well and good, but you also have to know what and how to pack. It’s especially important to keep both departure point and destination weather.
I’m a mentor to a foster youth who is now 18 and living independently for the first time. He contacted me in a panic when his prescription was running out and didn’t know how to get a refill; had always been done for him. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was a small one and this was Saturday late afternoon on a 3 day week-end and he had to wait until Tuesday. Had to explain how to look at the bottle for instructions, etc. and also to see how many refills he had so he’d know when to schedule a doctors appointment prior to his prescription expiring.
Just my two cents but suggesting to a 17 year old getting ready to leave for college that s/he program her phone with various emergency numbers (post #146) could instill unnecessary fear. Those numbers are all at one’s fingertips on a smart phone and, between the RA, ‘better’ local services, 911, etc., there are various options. I’m referring to rape crisis hotline numbers, police emergency line, etc.
Eh, I talked to my 2015 daughter about the numbers. She has the local numbers and the national hotlines. Doesn’t hurt to be prepared. 
I don’t think having the numbers is a self-fulfilling prophecy or I’d never have plastered the Poison Control hotline number all over my kitchen when I had kids.
You really only needed it in one place, perhaps inside a cabinet.
(It was a joke.)
How to say hello, thank you, my name is_______ in as many languages as possible.
How to properly greet someone whether it be bowing, kiss on each cheek, air kiss, hug, the pound, the dap, the chest bump and handshake- dry palm and firm or with flair.
I’m leaving for college in five weeks, and I still don’t know how to swim…
If you’d like to learn, your college’s physical education department probably has courses.
@Marian I just checked, and they do indeed have PE swimming courses!! Thanks so much!
Let’s put it this way. How would your children fare if you as their parent(s) were to pass away today. What would happen to them? That will be the answer to what they should know how to do.
That’s a very good way of posting the question, @5umtim3s. I’m not sure that many of the posts address that set of skills. Kids would not collapse and die if they couldn’t make their beds or give a eulogy (although ShawSon gave moving eulogies at ages 10 and 12 at his grandfathers’ funerals). Balancing a checkbook and managing financial matters including investments would need to be augmented for my kids. Dealing with car insurance, paying tuition (if not finished with school) etc.
In our case, we have a financial advisor who would consider that part of her responsibility and a lawyer who is such a close family friend that we introduced him to his wife (ShawWife’s school roommate). None of the relatives would be great at it.
I would not expect a 16-year-old or even a college student to be able to cope with all aspects of life, including its financial complexities, alone. It takes a few more years and some experience in truly independent living (not just living at college, but holding a full-time job and managing all your own affairs) to be able to do that with any skill.
My offspring are 29 and 25. They would have little or no difficulty managing if my husband and I died tomorrow. But five years ago, when the younger one was still in college and the older one was in graduate school (with no experience holding a job between college and grad school), they wouldn’t have had a clue.
Here’s a skill I taught my kids. It sounds obvious and trivial, but they have both thanked me: When presented with an object that you need to operate, or that is broken, or that you need to understand, look at it carefully before you do anything. (It’s amazing how many people don’t do this.)
One I have to refresh for them is that many adults will not return a phone call unless you leave a message–and conversely, that if somebody calls and leaves a message, listen to the message before returning the call.