Schools and colleges are creating workers. And most parents are worried about their kids just enough, to ensure the kids can clear their school / college examinations and get a good “job”. While formal education is important, both seem mostly clueless, and neither is interested in teaching kids the basic life skills – the importance of food, self-cooking, finance, money, property, wealth, corporations, marriage, kids, parenting and many more.
The challenge is real. The dependency on corporations and governments is real too. The industrial age has managed to make us heavily dependent in the name of independence and we have let it happen over the last few centuries. Some might call it a result of the consumer culture.
Point is, parents may have to learn these life skills themselves before starting to teach the children about it.
**A special note for Indian parents – remember, even until a couple of decades ago, children did not leave their parents’ home when they grew up. So parents did not have to worry about teaching all of these at an early age, as in those times, children continued to follow elders and learn throughout as situations came up. Since times are changing, this is important.
Here are some skills that your kids need to know for sure, at different ages before 18.
1. Health : Cooking, Exercising, Sports and eating the right type of food
I wrote something on this topic. You could view the article here.
2. Wealth generation / Money management / Why is wealth important? Psychology of Money is one of the best books to cover this topic.
3. Importance of Property and Real Estate.
Rich Dad Poor Dad is a good option.
4. Married life / Love and how responsibilities change. How Men and Women are different.
Read this book and pass it on to your children when time permits.
5. The role of Corporations, Religion and other social structures.
There is a fantastic book from Yuval Noah Harari specifically for children aged 10+ years, explaining this topic.
6. Information overload and it’s adverse effects / Importance of reading books or listening to podcasts versus gobbling up tons of content regularly
I have not read a book for this, but google the topic, and you will get tons of material.
7. Self-Care / mental health – manage emotions / feeling brain vs thinking brain / forming good daily Habits and importance of a daily routine
Books for points 7 and 8 – Atomic Habits / The 5 AM Club / Ikigai / The courage to be disliked / The courage to be happy / The Anger Trap
8. And last, but not the least : Why is it important to make good friends, and keep them? Develop a feeling of community and maintain it.
Books for points 7 and 8 – Atomic Habits / The 5 AM Club / Ikigai / The courage to be disliked / The courage to be happy / The Anger Trap
If these sound like very simple topics and you believe that the child will learn these on his / her own – you will end up leaving your child at the mercy of the brainwashing corporations, mass marketers, social media, and politicians.
So please, go through the above list, add more topics as needed, and start learning yourself, to be able to teach your kids about the same.
Ending with a short video that will help everyone understand why it is important for your child to have knowledge of the world outside the 4 walls of school and college.
Signing off.
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