What Necessary Adult Skills Were You Never Taught Growing Up?

Lifehacker asked this question of its readers: What necessary adult skills were you never taught growing up? The site was properly called out for asking it as a call for article ideas, but that’s not really a sin. It’s kind of related to a discussion thread we once posted titled Buying Bread that asked what surprised you when you got out on your own away from family. The answers Lifehacker got were about personal finance, personal hygiene, sex, taxes, health, job hunting, and auto mechanics, among many other things. A thread at Metafilter has even more.

The first thing I thought of was computers: I knew nothing of computers because no one had any. Even in college you couldn’t touch one unless you were taking one of the three computer language classes. But I don’t have to worry about teaching computer skills to my kids. I do worry about what else they don’t know. They can write cursive, read a map, budget their money, and cook better than their peers, but maybe I’m overlooking something. What else should be on the list?   

(Image credit: Flickr user Tulane Public Relations)