11 skills your teenager needs before they head to college

Tacos. Pasta with sausage. Tuna casserole.

These are the simple dinners my 16 year-old son and I have cooked together this summer.

Up until now, Nathans strengths have landed more in the eating large quantities category than in actual meal preparation. But in our household, that is starting to change.

Based on our research at the Fuller Youth Institute with over 500 high school seniors during their first three years after high school, Im convinced that my kids and countless other teenagers need their parents help before they transition to college, military, or the workforce. My husband and I still have two years before Nathan graduates, but our data suggests its never too early to start training our teenagers for life after high school. (Read about our Sticky Faith research here .)

Often our busy schedules and our desire to protect our kids from hardship (which can easily merge into helicopter parenting) prevent us from instilling in them the life management skills they need. But as your child prepares to leave the nest and fly forward, you now have the opportunity to give them wings to truly soar.

Whether you have a few weeks or a few years before your child leaves home, I invite you to make sure your child knows how to

Do laundry

Clean the dishes and do basic housecleaning

Use an ATM machine, conduct banking online, and exchange money on Venmo or PayPal

Perform basic first aid

Hang a picture (a skill that many college freshmen lack but almost all need)

Make healthy eating choices at a school cafeteria

Grocery shop with a budget

Cook a few simple meals

Change a tire and understand routine car maintenance

Use Uber , Lyft, or other means of public transportation

Have one adult identified to call or text in a crisis

If time is short and you can only pass on one skill to your son or daughter, Id emphasize the last one. Moving into the next life stage means your child will face new choices and new temptations. They will navigate unfamiliar territory in their friendships, romantic relationships, faith, as well as potential high-risk behaviors. And they will need the wise input of an adult mentor to help them make the right choice, as well as to comfort them if (or maybe more accurately, when) they make a decision they regret.

Our Sticky Faith research suggests that during the first two weeks of their freshman year, college students make decisions about relationships, worldview, and partying that set them on a trajectory for the next four years. When weve shared this data with college campus adult mentors, theyve proposed that those choices arent made in the first two weeks; they are made in the first four days.

As a parent of a teenager, you have the opportunity to help shape their first decisions as they transition to adulthood. Whether those determinative choices are made in your childs first four days, four weeks, or four months, now is the time to connect your teenager with a mentor, train them in online banking, and teach them how to make those tacos.

Want more insights to parenting teenagers? Grab our guide for your family here.