Equipping our young people for practical life

I have been giving alot of thought recently about how well we equip our youngsters for adult life. I am the first to admit that in some areas I have failed to teach my children some of the practical skills needed to live a simple life.

I have tried to teach them not to be materialistic and I think for the most part they are not hankering after 'things' and none of them are in debt ( apart from the one who went to University, and he has a job so is paying it back).

When they were growing up I didn't involve them in any of the house cleaning routines which I now regret. It was easier and certainly quicker to do it myself, so that's what I did....but I did them no favours. Thankfully all three of them are now reasonable tidy in their own homes but we did go through a few very untidy years!

I make most food from scratch, including bread but I haven't passed on these skills....shame on me. However, my daughter is an excellent cake maker for our twice yearly sales.

I was taught to sew by my mother who is a skilled needlewoman, at the age of 78 she still makes most of her dresses and skirts, she makes amazing lace and can turn her hand to almost anything practical. My daughter has not been interested in sewing but has made the odd cross stitch picture which I treasure! One of my son's made his girlfriend a pair of pink tartan shorts for Christmas!!!!!( not sure if she treasures them but I'm sure she appreciates the effort involved!) Below is the shorts in progress! I love to grow seeds and plants, a few vegetables......when the children were little they had their own little bit of the garden which they grew easy stuff in, like Sunflowers and Marigolds and were inspired by my father-in-laws garden which was full of produce and stayed like that until he died aged 88.

If I had my time over again I would not only try to teach my children more practically but I would teach them to let go of perfectionism. Everything does not need to be perfect, do it as well as you can but we do not need to have

-a perfect home

-a perfect body

-a perfect wedding

-a perfect car

-a perfect luxury holiday

etc.....

The nicest wedding I ever saw was entirely homemade, dresses, cakes, food and wild flowers on the tables in big jugs, the best holidays we ever had were when the children were young and we couldn't afford anything except camping....I could go on but you get the picture!

Is it too late? Hopefully not, and seeing my children now I can see that they are doing some stuff anyway....maybe they just watched! If I ever have grandchildren I will teach them how to do things like cook and sew for fun. Men also have a part to play, let them help Dad to make something, mend something and learn how to use tools.

Although I have written this in the first person, I was not alone bringing up our children, my husband and their father is an engineer and has passed this talent on to one of our son's who is now an engineer for a very posh and upmarket British car company ! My daughter works in the caring profession looking after children and young people with special needs, not easy at all, and our other son is about to return to the Royal Marines having sustained an injury during training he is about to start again. The Royal Marines taught him to be very tidy and his ironing skills are phenomenal! He is very resourceful and if there was a war and I had to hide in the woods to survive I would want him with me as he can survive outdoors with nothing! Bit of a Bear Grylls type!

Well this wasn't meant to be a rant, just a musing about using the gifts we have been given by God and passing skills on down the generations, not relying on this throwaway society. I get teased about my breadmaking, I don't use a breadmaker just the old fashioned way BUT...there is never any left to throw away, so however much I get teased, I know they like it really!