What every kid should know
The school year is starting; almost 2 million kids are heading off to college for the first time----so there's a predictable rash of articles on the internet. How to let go and say goodbye. 9 tips for sending off a college freshman. And the one I saw in the morning paper: What every kid should know before they leave home.
I should know better. But I read it anyway.
It starts off okay—the first example is changing the toilet paper roll. Not a bad idea— there are grown men who haven’t yet learned this skill.
But it goes downhill from there—–with a long list of stuff parents should teach before the kids leave home: how to iron a shirt, clean a toilet, balance a checkbook. Nothing personal against this writer; my gripes are not just with this list but also with all those books on What Your 4th grader or 6th grader or Teenager Should Know.
For one thing, I take issue with the deadlines. Like there’s a particular age when kids should have mastered certain skills. Your kid can’t set the table by age 5? Definitely not Harvard material.
The list of chores and the right ages to learn them of course comes from consulting with experts….one of which turns out to be the Duggars—also in the news for expecting their 19th child. If you ask me, what should be at the top of their list to teach their kids—birth control.
Plus the Duggars don’t even specify whether the toilet paper should come from the top or the bottom. FAIL.
Seriously. Although I’m not, the article is. And besides the fact that all these lists are ridiculously arbitrary, maybe another reason I don’t like reading this stuff is because for me, it’s too late.
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