A growing number of college freshmen know very little about ‘adulting' at 18-yrs old. "What we’re hearing from college campuses is they don’t know how to wash their own clothes in a washing machine and dryer,” says Diane Debrovner, deputy editor of Parents Magazine. "There are certain basic skills that come with being an independent person that kids and teenagers have become very dependent on their parents to do for them.”
Debrovner believes it's never too late -- or too early -- to remedy a child's lack of life experience. “Only about 1 in 6 young children can make their own breakfast,” referring not to using a stove but to pouring themselves a bowl of cereal. She believes the tendency for some parents to step in and ‘do it’ – or being too quick to answer their child's question – short-circuits the learning process.
“The goal of being a parent is to raise a successful, independent person,” which Debrovner feels could start with having a different response when the child asks for help. “Texting is part of the problem,” she says. “Kids can contact us immediately any time of day and ask a question, and parents generally answer.” As a result, teens can grow into adults who've never had to comparison shop for groceries, talk to their teacher about a grade or even sort a basket of dirty laundry. The inability to efficiently do such basic tasks hinders a person entering adulthood. "In the short term it seems easy to do things for our kids, but as parents we want them to be competent.”
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