To all high school age, and above, young people. As a parent of a child about to finish Kindergarten, what would you suggest I could do to make life easier for my little one, over the next 12+ years in the education system?

Teach the little one everything you can now. Spelling, Math, History, Electronics, Computers, Fighting, MMA/BJJ, Fishing, Basic Handiwork, Basic mechanics, The list goes on and on.

Teach them not to give a fuck about others opinions of them.

Teach them to stand up for themselves and if anyone lays hands on them how to defend themselves. Bullies suck and if your kid handles one in school they generally won't have problems with them again and/or others.

Make them try everything atleast once or twice.

Expose them to as much shit (good and bad as possible).

Teach them good studying habits.

Teach them to follow rules but also give them the opportunity to argue/discuss any rules they disagree with.

Be strict but not horrible.

Pop them if they need it but don't beat them.

Explain everything to them. Just bring up random questions to them and if they don't know the answer, show them the book or the site they can read up on it on.

I could go on and on but basically, just teach them everything you can and prepare them for every part of adult life. Use your experience to help them and do things that you don't have experience with while having fun with them.

Sex ed at home is a fuck lot better than at school so around puberty, talk to them. They may hate it but just give them the info and set them up with BC/Contraceptives/Etc.

Teach them to cook.

Brush up on your math skills as they go through the grades. I've had to do refresher courses so many damn times because my son keeps advancing and I need to help with homework.

Never, ever, ever just give them the answer for anything unless it can hurt or kill them. Make them learn it. Again, be prepared to learn a lot of shit.

Make them interact with other kids, it's good for them. Take them to the park and let them play with random kids, they will learn a lot.

They should always be allowed to come to you with help for problems. Drill this into their head: that no matter how bad it is, they can always come to you. Additionally, it's in their best interest to hear about their fuckups from them instead of hearing about from someone else.

Stay involved with you kid at school.

Don't helicopter parent them. Leave them to do their own shit but just monitor from the sidelines. You don't have to be up their ass all the time.

Keep in contact with your kids teachers at school, shoot them an occasional email or phone call to see how your kid is doing and what you can do to help them do better.

Take your kid to school events. It's good for them.

Let them hang out with their friends from school.

Make sure they have the supplies they need.


Shit, I misread your post title as asking advice from parents. but I've already typed all this so I'm leaving it. I could go on and on but I've got a few kids to go kick the shit out of ;)


Most importantly: Have fun with them while doing everything above and more. Let them get some experience.

/r/CasualConversation Thread