Society says that teenagers are hard to deal with and are rebellious.

Are your kids ready for "real life?" Prepare them with the lessons in this 10 day series! Plus there are 24 other mom's contributing to the Tips for Homeschool Moms series! Check it out!- DaytoDayAdventures.com

This is not surprising. I think as parents, we often treat teens like they are still little kids and yet expect them to act like adults.

It is very confusing for everyone.

One of the best ways to help a young adult(not a teen—hate that term) is to push them to take real ownership of certain areas of their life.

Earning Responsibility

WAY before I’m ready to turn the keys of the car over to my 16 year old I am requiring that he or she manage his time, evaluate if he/she is getting the right amount of sleep and eating healthy meals.

If he(or she) cannot do those things then they don’t have the maturity to get behind the wheel.

So if you have a young adult in your home who needs to “grow up” or if you are a young adult who is a little lost on how to take care of yourself—this lesson is for you!

Basic Self Care--talking to the young adults here

Daily—basically do all the things that your mamma(or dad) told you to do. Except they won’t be watching over you. YOU are in charge of getting it done.

Revel in that.

If caring for yourself doesn’t happen, then it is your fault. Got a cavity? Can’t blame mom—its on you. Super tired from a late night but you have to be up early? Make the choice to learn from it instead of being a grouch at everyone else.

Isn’t “adulting” grand? On the other hand if you can identify what YOU need everyday then you can have a sweet life that is less likely to explode on you. Here are some basics many that are part of the Real Life lesson series. Feel free to add your own.

The Basics

Cleanliness—teeth, shower, laundry etc
Eat healthy meals
Time with God—prayer, Bible reading
Sleep—Figure out how much sleep you need. It is probably between 6-9 hours a night. But that can be different for everyone.
Sunshine—GO outside daily and breath the fresh air. It’s good for you.

BIGGEST way to care for yourself that one that no one tells you about

Reduce your stress—Stress will kill you. You can’t live in the midst of high stress 24/7--365 days a year.

You need a manageable load. Is your work load out of control? Hanging out with toxic people? Behind on your school work? All of that happening at the same time? You need to get out from under some of that. Watch out for good stress it can be sneaky.

A stressful situation our son went through

In one year our son, moved to Kansas City for a summer internship, moved from Kansas City to Columbia to finish his last semester, got married, graduated, moved to St. Louis, started a new job, bought a house and moved again. Seriously.

I’m not sure how he survived. It was all good stuff but it was STRESSFUL!!!!

Yearly Self Care

These are really easy to skip when you are young but don’t do it. I didn’t go to the dentist for a lot of years because we were really broke when we were first married. I went into marriage with no cavities but it caught up with me after I started going again. Seriously it is important to care for yourself.

Yearly physical
Dental cleaning and visit
Eye check
VACATION—if you can at all swing it take some time off once a year to travel, rest and relax. If you can’t go for a week or two then make sure to schedule a long weekend a couple times a year. You will come back refreshed and ready to go again!

Some medical know-how

Parents—do you make all your kids appointments? Do you pick up the prescriptions? Do you tell them when they are sick enough to go to the doctor?

Well you need to stop.

Once they hit 18 you won’t be able to do it anymore. The expectation at the doctors office is that they are adults and should be handling it themselves! So help them by requiring them to start doing these tasks. Don’t throw them to the wolves.

Coach them. Act out the phone call—have fun with it. It's silly but it does help.

Young adults—your mom has been doing all this stuff for you. It’s time for you to start doing your own thing with some help. People work in medicine because they want to help you. They don’t bite and if you don’t know what to do? ASK. Seriously they will help you.

Young Adults need a doctor

Find someone who can do a yearly physical and can give treatment when there are bigger illnesses that occasionally occur. It is not enough to just go to urgent care. At some point you are going to need a relationship with a primary doctor.

This is especially important if you have an illness that is life long. My daughter has Celiac disease and Fibromyalgia so it is important for her doctor to know her history. If you are over 18 you probably will want to stop going to your pediatrician but each situation is different. Ask around—people will tell you if they like their doctor and why. Make an appointment to meet the doctor. Treat it like an interview. Ask some questions. See if you like them. Find out their philosophy on medicine. Do they push medicine or let your body heal on it's own when it can?

Check list for taking care of yourself

I hesitated to make this check list. To me it doesn't seem necessary but I decided that was because in my 40s this list is old hat. But if I was still in my 20s or 30s this might not be the norm so I made it. If you or your child are on top of these things then pat your self on the back! If NOT then here is your homework! PRINT it out and start to take an inventory of how you are doing. Use it to give yourself some goals for the next month or year.

This is the sixth day of the 10 day series of Tips for Homeschool Moms. (If you aren't a homeschooler don't click away!!! MANY of these topics will apply all moms!)

10 days of real life lessons NOT learned in school

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Also don't miss the posts on these topics--24 other bloggers are contributing to the series!