10 Things
While we were in Chicago, I kept making Alexis figure out which direction we should walk in. I knew the answer, of course, I just think it's important to be able to get your bearings in a new city. At one point, Alexis got SUPER annoyed by the game, which led to me explaining that I would be failing her if I didn't make sure she had certain life skills. That led to listing some of those life skills and blah, blah, blah. Here's part of that list if only so I can later remind Alexis that I told her it was all important. It's not my fault if she doesn't listen to me.
And, thus, here's 10 Things You Have To Do Before You Move Out of Your Parent's House:
1. Do laundry well enough to be confident you can get most any stain out. Seriously. Life is annoyingly hard if you don't know how to get clothes clean.
2. Somewhat related, walk around public with an obvious stain on your clothes. For real. You have to see for yourself that nobody cares about that thing that's consuming all of your head space. It's a valuable lesson for lots of things.
2. Clean a bathroom. The key is to know how so that you know it's worth paying someone else to do it when and if you get the chance.
3. Figure out how to navigate your way around a city. Any city. At any time.
4. Look up from your phone. There is a trick to number 3 and that is to look up. GPS will sometimes fail you (especially in urban areas), but figuring out which way it is to water or a particular tall building or whatever is MAGICAL. Besides, you miss all the fun stuff if you walk around staring at your phone.
5. Be able to put air in a car tire. By yourself.
6. Know how to change a flat tire or who to call for help. I know some people think you need to be able to DO it, but I think delegating some tasks is completely appropriate.
7. Know a trick for clearing your head. Everybody has days when life is too much and you have to be able to regain your focus. For me, it's playing dumb games on my phone. It's like a reset to do something mindless for a bit. Everybody needs a thing like that.
8. Stay up way too late for no good reason.
9. Be able to read a bus/train/subway schedule well enough to catch a flight, for example. The point is to be able to use public transportation to get somewhere by a defined deadline. Learn how while you still live with your parents so you have someone who can bail you out if needed.
10. Have a strategy for exiting a bad conversation. Everybody runs into them from time-to-time; you gotta know what you're going to do to get away gracefully.
Monday, July 30, 2018
Reader Comments (5)
This is a great reminder. I used to do some of this too. Make the kids tell me what bridge we are on, what tunnel we are in, which river we are crossing. And making them learn how to use public transit. They don't have to use it all the time but they need to know how to use it in case they ever get stuck somewhere.
7 & 10 are the one I have trouble with, even now. I can do all the others.
Two #2's! Bonus content from Burgh Baby!
I approve of #9 (well, all of them really), but it's going to be a challenge here in the Burgh because our idiot bus system uses the same number for multiple and not-completely-overlapping routes. It certainly would never occur to me to expect such an aberration and the last time I looked at a bus schedule it didn't make it clear at all as to what was going on.
You are a great momma. Your kids are super lucky to have you.