We spend a barrel-load of time worrying about children’s mental health. It’s quite right to concern ourselves with their happiness and spiritual equilibrium but I wonder if we might be missing a trick? Somewhere along the way we seem to have sidelined or perhaps forgotten the importance of equipping our junior citizens with purely practical skills.
We’ve dismissed the simple fact that each fresh skill acquired adds immeasurably to a young person’s self-esteem. The more accomplishments he or she notches up, the more valuable he knows he has become. Teach a child to boil an egg, use the toaster and brew a drinkable cuppa and you transform him not just into one of life’s survivors – he will never know hunger – but into a host.
As a tea-maker, he has been given the blessing of dispensing hospitality. Armed with kettle and packet of biscuits, he enjoys the quiet satisfaction of making others welcome.
Compound the young person’s confidence by showing him/her how to change a plug or tyre, clean a window, conquer the recycling and weed a herbaceous border and he knows he is a walking asset to every occasion.
Throw in a seminar on unblocking a U-bend, papering a wall and sewing on a button and the little chap is a veritable wunderkind. Add to his culinary repertoire the concoction of nourishing soup from leftovers added to simmering homemade stock and the boy is a boon to all fortunate enough to know him.
None of the skills I have listed is difficult to demonstrate. Practice makes perfect. My point is that knowing you’re a whiz with a rolling pin, terrific at mowing the lawn in ramrod-straight stripes and that you can tie a worthwhile bow and a serviceable slip knot and tourniquet, plus put a razor-sharp crease in your best trousers and type using more than just your thumbs, is balm to the growing soul.
Every time we shield our offspring from the tedium of chores and repetitive tasks, we imagine we are freeing them to an idyll of unfettered daydreaming. We are wrong. Vacuuming is boring but completing the vacuuming ticks the achievement box beautifully.
Feeding the ungrateful goldfish and keeping his bowl pristine is a thankless grind, but acquiring the discipline essential to keep a living creature fed and comfortable comes in useful when you go forth and multiply.
Teach your children an assortment of vital life skills – whether they feel like learning them or not – and their anxiety levels will subside, their self-worth will expand, people will forever be thrilled to see them, their employment and marriage prospects will expand exponentially and their future spouses will name you in their prayers.