An important part of any mother’s role in their kid’s life is to not only raise them to adulthood but also to make sure that they’re prepared for it, as well.
Nowadays, adulthood begins for a lot of kids when they go to university. Not only are they independent for the first time, but they’re joining a high-pressure educational environment that could shape their chances of success for years to come. Here, we’re going to look at the ways that mothers can help prepare their kids for that journey.
Make cooking cheap and healthy
So many students arrive at university without knowing little more than how to throw instant noodles into a pot of boiling water, and some will burn even that. It’s wise to help your kid get used to cooking by having them cook a couple meals every week leading up to university. Make it a thing that you do together, showing them the ropes until they’re comfortably able to do it on their own. Take them grocery shopping with you, use meal planning apps like Food on the Table, and show them how to correctly store different kinds of foods as well. You have no idea how much trouble you will save your kids just by showing them how to properly manage their food.
Taking care of home and hearth
A lot of mums will have made sure that their kids take care of their fair share of the chores, so you might not have this problem. However, sometimes that isn’t the case and you will, in fact, need to teach them how to tidy the house, how to clean the bathroom, how to do laundry and all the other chores that might seem exceedingly simple to you. You can help put together a housekeeping schedule that ensures they take care of where they live. Otherwise, don’t be surprised if they don’t pick up the habit easily and end up living in rather squalid conditions.
Teaching them good money-making habits
Helping your adult children become financially responsible is one of the most important things for a parent in today’s society. More and more people are finding it easier to get into debt and often it’s down to nothing more than poor money management and unpreparedness. However, they don’t learn things like how to use their credit and how to budget in school. It’s important that we teach them how to fulfil these responsibilities, ourselves. Leading by example, setting limits, and helping them plan out their finances, such as how they will spread out their maintenance fund in a budget, teaches them to be responsible for their money.
Teach them to be good, smart tenants
If your kid is renting a place, either alone or sharing a home with other tenants, then you should help them avoid being taken advantage of. Landlords can be a particularly unscrupulous bunch, and halls management is often only a little better. Go through the tenancy agreement with your kid, making sure that they know what’s expected of them. A lot of students get surprised by maintenance agreements like, for instance, expectations that they will keep the garden tidy and trim. Knowing their tenant rights is just as important, such as their right to get their deposit back unless the landlord has to spend it on the damage they have caused, their right to not be evicted without enough notice, and their right to decline viewings on the property while they’re living there.
Keep in touch with them
Just because they’re leaving the nest doesn’t mean that they have to be entirely on their own. Some parents worry that by allowing their kids to stay connected to them that they are sheltering them and stopping them from living life on their own. However, the truth is that they’re going to be spending most of their time outside of your watchful eye, so you should aim to make it a normal habit for them to get in touch, whether they need advice or just want a chat. You can get involved in the one month free loyalty program from SMARTY by referring a friend so it becomes easier for both of you to stay in touch, too. Just make sure they’re not calling multiple times a day to the detriment of their new social lives at uni.
Teach them how to stay safe in a new place
You don’t want to scare your kids, or yourself for that matter, by overemphasising the danger of living in a new, strange place, especially a city. However, you do want them to be aware of what risks are there, as well as the tips they can take to protect themselves. The Downing Students Stying Safe at University guide offers a lot of tips on how to protect themselves, their assets, and even their identity. After all, nowadays, it’s not just the risk of physical crime that we have to be aware of, but digital risks that can have far-reaching implications, as well.
Professional etiquette
From now on, how your child behaves not only influences whether or not they get in trouble with the school, but also their professional prospects. As such, teaching them essential etiquette, both in person and in an email is going to help them make a better impression, build their network, and pave the path to a successful career all the more easily. This includes not only how to be polite, but you should help them find lessons on presenting confidently and having comfortable body language, as well. University is going to be their first experience of presenting themselves as an adult in a work environment, and you can give them a bit of a headstart by sharing tips from your own career, as well.
There’s no single right answer on how to prepare kids for university and the life that comes with it and beyond it. We can only hope to pass on as many practical lessons as possible. The rest is up to our kids.
0 Comments