Recent high school graduates may be ready to move out to college or into an apartment, but are they prepared for the adult responsibilities? We have a feature with great checklists of items to cover with your kids before they fly from the nest.
Here’s our top 13:
1. Have some go-to meals to make:
- Scrambled eggs & omelets
- Easy meals: spaghetti with noodles
- Salad basics
- How to pick meats – ground beef, steak
- How to use a crockpot
2. Avoid food poisoning:
- 3 days for meat (mark a use-by date)
- Reheating pizza
- Raw meat handling (don’t forget eggs)
3. Home maintenance:
- Checking Fuses
- Using a toilet plunger
- Turning the water off at the toilet and at the street
- GFI outlets
- Running toilet
4. Managing unstructured time (it’s not free time)
5. Knowing how to parallel park
6. Basic car maintenance:
- Checking oil level and adding oil
- Oil changes & frequence
- Checking tire pressure
- Changing a flat tire – or who to call (AAA or insurance if you have that service)
- How to jumpstart a car
7. What to do when pulled over by police (registration & insurance card, etc)
8. Laundry:
- Washing whites, darks, and brights
- How to fold
- How to iron shirts and pants
- How to hem pants with the iron-on hem stuff
- Trick: throw the damp washcloth in with dry clothes in the dryer to steam out wrinkles
9. Basic first aid:
- Burns
- Wounds
- Allergies vs. headaches
10. Making doctors’ appointments:
- Insurance card
- Social security number
11. Cleaning:
- How to sweep & mop
- Properly cleaning bathrooms and toilets
- Keeping drains clean
12. Responding to Tornados and Severe Weather:
- Safe spots in the house
- The weather app on the phone
- Knowing the difference between warning and watch
13. Being a good judge of character & a good roommate:
- How to deal with conflict
- Organizing food and areas with roommate
- Habits that may irritate roommates
- Rules for having guests over
- Cleanliness & ground rules
Learn these skills before college to be prepared for living on your own and handling the many situations you are sure to encounter or put to use at least once within the next 4 years (but even if you don’t, they are good to know for life ahead).
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