Preparing Your Child for Living Alone: 5 Things any Parent Can Do

Many of us have known people in life who aren’t properly equipped for it. Luckily, most people will grow into functioning capable adults around their 20s, with a few taking an extra decade off to prepare themselves. For the parent of an unprepared child, especially one who is approaching or at adulthood, it can become disheartening when they aren’t achieving as much as we had hoped.

However, being frustrated and disappointed isn’t usually the best way to get your kids out of the house. Instead, try being more proactive and taking a more hands-on approach. With the right help, any adult can get their life together and move on to bigger and better things.

Whether your child is 8 or 18, the right kind of nurturing, guidance, and gentle pushing in the right direction will ensure that they are ready to leave home as soon as possible. If you do it right, they will fly from the nest willingly, you will barely need to push. Here are some things that any parent can do to prepare their child for life as an adult.

Teach Them Essential Home Improvement Skills

School can teach your kids a lot, but even the smartest kids will still have a lot to learn once they leave school. There are so many skills and pieces of information that we all use in our day-to-day lives that aren’t taught in schools.

For this reason, teaching your child key home improvement skills is vital before they leave home. These skills can include changing the lightbulb, unclogging the toilet, dealing with blocked drains, how to iron their clothes, how to prepare a room for painting and so on.

However, there will be times when the skills you teach them don’t quite work for a specific type of home improvement, which could include fixing the roof, maintaining their air conditioning unit and more. That’s why showing your child how to search for “handyman services near me” is a great skill they can use at times like these.

Help Them Manage Money

Managing money is an essential skill for being an adult, which makes it all the more amazing how many adults get by with no money management skills at all. However, as any adult knows from experience – the adults who don’t manage their money well are in a state of perpetual worry and anxiety.

Simple budgeting will help your children in more ways than you can count. Of course, there is the practical side of things – managing money properly means always having enough on hand to pay for food, gas, and any other expenses that come up.

Consider Charging Rent

If your child is aged 18 or over, you should consider charging them rent. You don’t need to charge them full price, the idea is to get them used to factoring in the rent when they are budgeting rather than making a point about how much rent actually costs. Instead of charging my children rent, I made them responsible for paying a specific bill, like water, or internet.  This taught them how to keep up with a bill and what were the consequences of not paying on time (late fees). 

Needless to say, if your child doesn’t have any income independent of you, like a job of their own, then any money they pay to you will be money that is being returned. It is therefore much better to encourage them to find a job before you start charging them rent.

Help Them Get a Car

A car will greatly help your child to live a more independent life. If your child is still too young to learn to drive on their own, you might be able to give them lessons yourself. Of course, you should wait until they are old enough and book them some professional Driving Lessons from an experienced instructor. However, if they are driving on your private property then in most states you will be allowed to teach them to drive while on your property.

Do not buy your child a car. Instead, you can co-sign a loan for a new car, making sure they can make the payments and cover the insurance You can help them save up to purchase a used car by matching what they save in a year. This teaches them the value of money. They will learn how hard you have to work to buy the things you want.

Teach Time Management

Time management is another vital skill for adults to have in both their personal and professional lives and one that a lot of adults are lacking in. Good time management enables us to get a lot more done with our days, it might surprise you just how much more efficient you can be once you start to really try.

With the right guidance, any child can be prepared for life after living at home. If your child doesn’t go to college, this can remove the obvious point for them to leave home and lead to them staying with you longer than either of you plan. If you want to encourage your adult child to leave home, the gently encouraging approach is the best.