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TEHRAN, Jul 23 -Sarah Clark was happy to get the call from her college teen, but couldn't believe what she was hearing.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -"My kid called from college and said, 'I'm sick, what should I do?'" Clark said. "I'm like, what do you mean what do you do? You have a drug store down the street. Go have at it."
A new poll co-directed by Clark found that there are a lot of parents in the same boat.
Most parents think they are doing enough to prepare their teens for adulthood, but they're wincing a bit as the time comes for their young to leave the nest, the survey reports.
It turns out parents aren't especially confident that their kids are fully prepared to take care of their own money management and health care, said Clark. She is an associate research scientist with the University of Michigan and co-director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.
"We found that 87 percent of parents think they are doing enough to prepare their teens. Good for you, parents, except that when we asked them whether those teens were able to handle very basic things, in a lot of cases parents gave pretty low ratings," Clark said.
Parents said they are helping prepare their teens for independence by allowing them to make more choices (86 percent), pushing them to handle certain tasks themselves (74 percent) and no longer doing things for them (65 percent).
Parents Have Little Faith in Their Child's Life Skills
But mom and dad aren't confident that these strategies are helping teens build all the skills they'll need while they are attending college or moving into their first apartment:
- Just 8 percent were confident their teen could make an appointment with a doctor on their own.
- Only 25 percent thought their teen could dole out the correct dose of an over-the-counter medication.
- About 41 percent expected their kid to eat healthy foods.
- Around 46 percent think their teen will save money for the future.
- Only half believed that their teen could handle a minor injury with first aid.
- About 65 percent thought their kid would get enough sleep to maintain their health.
"That's stunningly low," Clark said of parents' expectations. "That's not where we want kids to be at age 17 and 18."
When asked why their kids aren't ready for independence, three in five parents said it's a problem with their teen. The teen isn't mature enough (24 percent), they don't have enough time to take on more responsibility (22 percent) or they don't know enough to handle their own business (14 percent).
"That is a kind of interesting circular logic," Clark said. "My kid doesn't know enough to be independent, and therefore he can't practice being independent."
Source: upi
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