When teens graduate high school most think they have enough life skills to make it on their own at college, but if you ask their parents, they are likely to disagree. According to a new UK survey by Unite Students, which could easily translate here, when asked to grade themselves on life skills, teens 16 to 19 would give themselves an A, while their parents would only give them a C.
So, in what areas do parents think teens are lacking? Well, while 78% of teens think they can cook a meal from scratch, only 55% of their parents think they can. In addition, 39% of parents are convinced their kids won’t wash their sheets more than once a month, while 84% of teens say they will. And then there’s the money issue. Most parents, 72%, are sure they’ll have to lend their children money before the first term ends, while only 33% of teens expect they’ll need to borrow dough from their parents.
Of course parents may be a little to blame if their teens aren’t ready to be on their own. While most parents say they’ve had talks with their kids on important issues like sex (45%), mental health (35%), drugs (54%) and alcohol (58%), a lot of teens say their parents haven’t really given them the advice they need. In fact, just 23% say they’ve gotten advice on sex or mental health issues, while 34% have talked to their parents about drugs and 42% have talked to them about alcohol.
Source: FEnews.com