70+ Essential Life Skills Teens Can Use Now and in the Future

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These 70+ life skills for teens are essential for making sure your child will be safe, confident, and self-sufficient when they leave home.

teen boy holding laundry with his mother looking on

One day you’re holding your baby in your arms and next you’re standing next to – or possibly looking up to – your teenager.

Our time with our children is short and once our kids grow into teenagers we have only a few short years left to prepare them for life outside the home.

Equipping our teens with life skills not only means they’ll be better able to manage money, do their own laundry and possibly cook a meal. It also means they’ll be more adept at handling emergencies, staying out of crippling debt and presenting themselves well to the world.

Few schools teach teens life skills today, so it’s up to us to make sure they’re ready.

Teaching your teen life skills doesn’t have to be a burden. In most cases, it’s a matter of making sure you’ve discussed important topics or have started handing over more responsibility. And ultimately, the more life skills your teen has mastered, the more self-sufficient they’ll become – which means less work for you.

Here are the essential life skills your teen will need for life outside your home, along with resources you can use to begin teaching these skills:

Money Management and Budgeting Skills

One of the most essential life skills we can teach our teens is how to budget and manage money. This basic knowledge will equip teens to stay out of debt, handle credit cards, save for big purchases and potentially live a life of financial freedom.

And now is the time to teach this skill to your teen because once they leave home it’s too late. Learning these skills while still at home is valuable, since any mismanagement of money won’t have major implications.

The best way to teach teens and kids how to manage money is to give them some of their own to mange. By giving your teen an allowance, and making them responsible for certain expenses, they’ll see first hand the benefits of budgeting and being careful with money. Inevitably, your teen will make mistakes, such as blowing money on an expensive purchase, that will make the need to budget and save obvious when there’s no money left to go out to dinner with friends.

Here are a few resources to help you start teaching your teen money management skills:

Study Skills

One of the biggest barriers to academic success for teens is not having good study skills. Understanding the best way to study in order to learn is essential for success in high school, future success in college, and professional success later in life.

The important study skills teens need include: knowing how to study without distractions, carefully reading and following directions, knowing where to find help and when to ask for it, and keeping track of deadlines and due dates.

Here are a few resources to help your teen develop good study skills:

Personal Grooming and Hygiene

It goes without saying that maintaining good personal grooming and hygiene is essential not only for staying healthy but also to make oneself presentable. Few people want to spend time with someone who smells bad or appears unkempt.

While our teens are still at home we can help educate them on the basics of grooming and hygiene. As teens go through the transition of puberty, they’ll especially need guidance in a caring for their changing body.

Here are a few topics as well as resources to review with your teen:

Chores and Household Skills

Knowing how to do basic chores and maintain a household are important skills so that your child doesn’t end up living in a rat’s nest. But consider this too – household skills are also essential for maintaining a good roommate relationship and harmony in a marriage. In fact, according to a study conducted by Harvard University, 25% of marriages end in divorce because of disagreements over chores.

The earlier kids are given chores, the more they will become the norm. If your teen hasn’t started chores yet, there’s still time to learn and contribute to the family. Just be sure that chores aren’t tied to their allowance (see why here).

Here are a few resources to help you get started:

Cooking Skills

Knowing how to cook brings a number of benefits: not only do cooks gain greater self-sufficiency but cooking generally results in healthier eating and can save money.

Getting your teen in the kitchen to cook alongside you is one way to get the ball rolling. Some of the basic skills you’ll want to cover include:

Reading a recipe
Knife skills
Using measuring cups
Using appliances
Using a stove and oven
Understanding basic nutrition
Store food properly
Understanding when food has spoiled

The following resources can help you teach your teen basic cooking skills:

Maintaining a Wardrobe and Clothing

Clothing becomes more important to kids as the get closer to and enter the teen years. But while your teen may have a better sense of style than they did at age six, do they know the proper way to dress for certain occasions? And do they know how to maintain their clothing through proper care?

Clothing can play a major role in many professions and understanding which pieces of clothing are considered appropriate is essential.

And being able to take proper care of clothing will prolong the life of clothes and reduce how much your child needs to spend on clothing.

These resources can help educate your teen:

Personal Health and Basic First Aid

As an adult, it’s important to know not only the basics of staying healthy but also what to do when help is needed. We can begin educating our teens these life skills while they’re at home so they’re well-informed by the time they’re on their own.

Especially if they live in the United States, teens should also be aware of the basics of health insurance – how it works and what it covers.

These resources can help teach teens the basics:

Social Skills

Social skills are important for teens as they become more independent and have the opportunity to form stronger bonds with friends. These skills will also be essential as teens leave home and become more self-sufficient.

In addition to some of the softer skills such as how to make friends or apologize, teens should also know proper etiquette like when and how to write a thank you note, how to demonstrate appropriate table manners, and when to give a present and how to choose one.

These resources can help teach teens the basics:

Help your child learn twelve important social skills with this 18-page ebook, Social Skills for Kids. Your child will learn how to be a gracious host, write informal and formal letters, address an envelope, set a table, demonstrate appropriate table manners, and more. Includes easy-to-read instructions written especially for kids. Click here to learn more.

Organizational Skills

Staying organized can have a big impact on a teen’s academic success and also reduce stress. When everything is in its proper place, it can lower frustrations about missing homework assignments, sports gear or any number of things that can get lost in a teen’s room.

In general, studies have shown that seeing clutter can be mentally draining and increase anxiety. Understanding how to stay organized can help teens feel more at ease.

These resources can help:

Time Management Skills

Showing up to an event on time, understand how long it will take to complete a task, and calling someone when you said you’d call them are all important skills teens and adults need.

One way to encourage your teen to consider their time management is to ask them to pick a time when they’ll complete a task such as chores or homework.

And when teens are working on longer term projects, like essays or science projects, for example, it can be helpful to coach them on how to write out a plan or schedule so it’s finished by the due date.

These resources can help:

Safety Skills

As teens spend more time outside their house without parents, it’s important to make them aware of safety concerns. These skills will be especially important when teens leave home and are in college or living independently. It’s best to educate your teen now, while they’re still living with you, so they’re prepared in the future.

Problem-Solving Skills

To really make our teens self-sufficient, they’re going to need to learn to solve problems independently. The process of acquiring problem-solving skills is gradual and your teen will need your love, support and guidance as they attempt to solve their problems independently.

The first step in encouraging problem-solving skills in teens is to let them make decisions and deal with challenges. It’s tempting to jump in and rescue our kids from friendship difficulties or contact their teacher over an issue they could and should address on their own.

Parenting kids in a way that encourages problem-solving can take a bit of practice, but the truth is parenting becomes a bit easier when our kids are equipped to think for themselves.

This resource can help:

How to teach your kids problem-solving skills

Career/Employment Skills

Even the most highly-educated college graduate won’t get far in a job if they don’t understand basic career and employment skills. That’s why teens benefit from getting jobs before graduating high school.

By getting a job, even for a short time, teens learn how to apply for a job and may also learn customer service etiquette, among other valuable skills. These jobs can also serve as a time to make small faux pas and learn from them, before embarking on a career.

Here are some resources to help teens get and keep a job:

Driving and Auto Maintenance Skills

Learning how to drive is a huge rite of passage for teens. But it’s important that in addition to just learning the skill of driving, teens also understand the basics of what it takes to own and maintain a vehicle and how to stay safe.

Here are a few of the things your teen should know:

More about teens and life skills:

7 Ways Parents Can Encourage Teens to Be Self-Sufficient

7 Important House Rules for Teenagers (and How to Make Sure They’re Followed)

Why These 3 Classic Punishments for Teenagers Are Ineffective and What to Do Instead

At What Age Can Kids Stay Home Alone?

What to do next…

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About Kerry Flatley

Hi! I’m Kerry, the mother of two girls and a certified parent educator. I believe it is possible for parents to have a supportive, loving, and warm relationship with their kids while raising them to be independent and ultimately self-sufficient. Over the years, I’ve read numerous books and articles that support this belief and I’ve put these ideas into practice with my own kids. Read more about me and Self-Sufficient Kids here.