"Life Skills" Classes?

[tomac]

This is interesting... I stand in line at the grocery store with my chicken, chuck steaks, more chicken, pork rib TIPS, potatoes and veggies. The lady in front of me has a few lobsters and some porterhouses, some premade salads from the deli and a pile of cold subs. She pays for it all with food stamps. OH MY GOSH, seeing that makes me fume. I clip coupons and buy generics. They don't even use a shoppers club type card. It's just so irresponsible it makes me sick.

This note tells exactly why I am totally opposed to the Welfare System in New York State. Odds are good that this person came here from out-of-state as well. Between that and the free health benefits, the politicans are destroying New York State!

[Achbek1]

There are kids in school that never even seen a checkbook, nor would know how to manage a bank account if one were given to them. It's sad.

The good news is that there are a few after school programs that actually teach lifeskills along the way. Along with parenting classes. It's a damn shame that these are even needed though. I learned most of my life skills from my parents.

I have a family member who dropped out of school at 14. He lived at home until he was 35 years old. He was from a blue collar, working class family. He never learned how to balance a check book, how to pay a utility bill, etc. This guy ended up on drugs and very violent... His mother would be all too accomodating, giving him her debit card and buying him cigarettes. He eventually moved in with a girlfriend who now supports him... I used to ofthen think that if this family member's parents would have kicked him out of the house that maybe he could find himself a little apartment in Riverside or something...

Then it dawned on me that if he did get his own apartment, at 35, he would have no idea what to do... He had never had to call a utility company to open up a new phone or gas or electric account. He had never gone grocery shopping. He never had a bank or checking account...

I sometimes thought that if his parents were not supporting him he would end up on Welfare...

That's the thing about middle class kids without "life skills." Their parents end up supporting them... There is a huge trend now of kids living with their parents until they are in their 20s, 30s or beyond... Some think it's cute and too many of society has embraced this a normal... But I find it sad... Frighteningly sad... Call it Section 7 and a Half, these people who are living with the parents forever are in just the same mess, only they are not as visible and possibly not as despised because they are not on Section 8 or Welfare... But it is the same thing, they are not supporting themselves... Because they can't or won't or don't know how...

Again, I had TOO MANY friends and acquaintences who fit this description while I was growing up... And they all looked at me like I WAS THE CRAZY ONE for living on my own and paying my own bills...

[crlachepinochet]

There's even moms who will drive hours every weekend to clean their kid's dorm room, do their laundry, and cook them some meals while they're away at college!

I forsee my kids living at home for as long as they're in school. Once you get a full-time job, you'd better be able to make it on your own. I could see letting them live at home for a while (not paying rent for a year or two makes a nice down payment on a house), but I will NEVER pay for my kid's cigs!

[ESP]

I would have no problem with my kids living with me for awhile, but there would definitely be ground rules in place. They'd have to pay rent, manage their own bank accounts, etc.

Having kids at home with you while they're saving for a house or marriage or something isn't necessarily a bad thing but they need to be prepared. It's the coddling that bothers me.

I don't even clean my kids' rooms now... If they want to live in a cesspool, so be it. I don't have to go in there, I just shut the door. I can't see myself ever driving to my kid's dorm room to clean that!

[Riven37]

Maybe if mom and dad took the time to give their kids "life skill classes" they wouldn't have to "bail them out" later in life. That and it would be one less course taxpayers would have to pay for.

What do ya think, hmmmm?

Well, this issue everyone can have a bite at it because, life skills are what we're tought at home, through our peers, friends, social events and the list can go on and on however, the one thing we all miss is life changes. It changes each and every day and as life changes our lifes so do the life skills we need to followthrought with those life changes.

It's not just Mon and Dad, you know what Mom and Dad were tought doesn't work all that well in todays Hi Tech changing world. More and more people are driven toward I need philosophy or I can get it all philosophy. Each and every person should keep their own life skills upgraded at least every six months in this fast pace Hi Tech world or we are, all due to slip on are butts.

[Achbek1]

There's even moms who will drive hours every weekend to clean their kid's dorm room, do their laundry, and cook them some meals while they're away at college!

I forsee my kids living at home for as long as they're in school. Once you get a full-time job, you'd better be able to make it on your own. I could see letting them live at home for a while (not paying rent for a year or two makes a nice down payment on a house), but I will NEVER pay for my kid's cigs!

Exactly, sometimes the parents coddle these kids too much to the point where they cannot take care of themselves...

Then, in that case, government entitlement programs are a form of coddling also, "No! Don't bother learning how to do it yourself! We will do it for you! Forget setting aside money for baby food and formula, here is WIC! Forget making your kid breakfast or lunch, here is the Free Lunch Program! Forget saving up for your own rent and utilities, here is Section 8 and HEAP!"

The government can be like an overbearing Mommy who can't let go...

Like I said folks, just like when you think it's cute to start feeding the squirrels in your yard...

We are becoming a society that no longer knows how to take care of ourselves...

[granpabob]

reading, spelling, writing, grammar, should be all part of English class
math class
science class
history class.
all should be required every year
home economics cooking and basic house keeping skills should be taught in middle school but only the basics skills
gym, music, band art, auto shop, wood shop, foreign languages, print shop, and all the others like these should be optional and taught only if at least 10% of the school population signs up for a class. I think all sports and other clubs should also meet this requirement. it must have 10% of the school population or cut it. no more golf for four kids bowling ten kids rifle club for seven kids. for too long special social clubs for a few kids have been paid for by all until so many groups exist that we run out of people to join them.
I like the idea of home economics. but not if it means hiring more teachers.

[tomac]

gym should be optional and taught only if at least 10% of the school population signs up for a class.

With so many fat kids waddling around, I think that gyn class should be manditory. Maybe include nutritional information.

[Achbek1]

With so many fat kids waddling around, I think that gyn class should be manditory. Maybe include nutritional information.

And the reason why so many of those kids are fat is because they are living on fast foods and microwave convenience foods... Maybe because their parents don't know how to cook and don't know about nutrition? Also, the TV and Internet lifestyle I'm sure doesn't help.

They say that childhood obesity has raised so much IN THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS... Let's see... What has changed so much specifically in the last fifteen years? Fifteen years ago was 1991... Right before the INTERNET? But I doubt that the internet has had everything to do with it, maybe a lot but not everything... The economy has gotten steadily worse in the past fifteen years which could mean that a.) more parents are working and thus not home to feed the kids and/or b.) people are financially worse off and therefore cannot afford better foods?

...I've always wondered if the DAWN OF THE MICROWAVE has had an impact on people's state of nutrition and/or obesity? Remember, microwaves only really broke onto the scene in the early 1980s... It does seem like obesity has been getting worse since the 80s and beyond?

We didn't have a microwave until I was about 7 years old... I was a skinny kid...

Who knows?

[Achbek1]

...Or wait a minute... Could it be that fifteen years ago was when they first started to take Home Ec out of the schools?

No matter what, we have been on a steady decline in many ways since the late 80s and early 1990s...

Each year we care less and less about the human "basics" such as family, nutrition, exercise, respect, etc...

And knowing how to feed ourselves and our children is another human basic that has been slipping by the wayside...

Pop a frozen pizza in the oven and shovel it into your bloated mouth. Turn on the TV and watch dumb programs while you do not move off the couch (the past fifteen years has also seen a tremendous rise in the NUMBER OF CABLE CHANNELS, could that be part of it?) Then while you are stuffing your face with a microwave pizza, ignore your children by letting the little buggers play on the internet... Don't bother getting your bloated rear end off the couch to prepare them healthy lunches for the next day at school, the Free Lunch people will take care of that...

That old college housemate of mine, by the way, the one who lived on frozen pizzas and hot dogs and who never made himself real food or had a salad,etc... Well, this is gross but it proves a point. The guy's body showed the signs of poor nutrition... He, uh, went to the bathroom a lot. He has lots of, uh, gas... He was cranky a lot...

[WNYresident]

A lot of it has to do with computer type games. Most kids sit at home on thier nitendo, sony playstations and atari 2600's.

There were kids living across the street before the parents moved out of state. I told them they were more than welcome to go into the woods to the creek. Nope, they would rather stay indoors and watch tv etc.

[ForestBird]

haha .. "We" never had a microwave! I got one at about the age of 25, and was still suspicious of the thing - I would not stay in the same room while it was running, and still tend to get away from it (same one!) now ... I guess I am now "elderly"

Also got my driver's license the week of my 25th birthday, after thinking that I could live without it - until moving to a spot on the West Side where the bus schedules had just been killed, and finding that the nearest grocery was a mile away. Hauling bags of kitty litter for a mile, over ice and snow, was not my idea of fun.

[granpabob]

gym class is for fit kids not fat kids. those that already are fit do everything and the fat kids hang around the edges just going through the motions .and when they do try something they are teased so much that it does more damage then help. It was that way when I was a kid and still is today. and this is coming from one of the kids who did the teasing. its a dream if you think gym class helps fat kids. their parents have to help them not school

[tomac]

gym class is for fit kids not fat kids. those that already are fit do everything and the fat kids hang around the edges just going through the motions .and when they do try something they are teased so much that it does more damage then help. It was that way when I was a kid and still is today. and this is coming from one of the kids who did the teasing. its a dream if you think gym class helps fat kids. their parents have to help them not school

It's possible to set up a gym class for the kids that need it. When I was in Boot Camp at Parris Island, it was called the "Motivation Platoon"; heavy on exercise and a balanced diet with emphasis on protein and cutbacks on the carbs. That was in 1966.