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Stop Disregarding These Important Lessons Your Mom Taught You About Adulting
When we live in the comfort of our family homes, it’s all too easy to discard or laugh about the countless pieces of advice our moms direct our way. After all, every single one of those tips can seem so irrelevant to our current lifestyles that you could, if you weren’t paying attention, simply assume that she’s just worrying too much or babying you like always.
Yet, as soon as you’re outside of that family bosom, you may very quickly realize that your mom wasn’t saying all of those things for fun, but that she might have had a point after all. Out of stubbornness, many of us continue to ignore her advice even then, but part of being a successful adult ultimately means knowing when to listen to wisdom. Believe it or not, your mom likely had a lot of it, and we’re going to consider just a few of the times you might want to remember that’s the case instead of brushing her advice away like you always have.
# 1 – Let’s start with money matters
Moms can be worriers, which is why you wouldn’t be alone if your mom spent a great deal of time trying to talk to you about finances, and in particular the importance of saving to ensure a secure future. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to absorb the importance of this lesson when you’re still on your parent’s bankroll and don’t have to worry about things like regular bills or financial responsibilities.
As soon as you move outside of the family home, however, these realities can come crashing down, and it’s at this moment that you might want to remember all of those conversations you half-tuned out of. Lessons including budgeting, clearing your debts, and beginning to plan for your retirement (no matter how premature that might seem!) can particularly help you to find your footing in this brand new financial world, and could just see you giving your mom a big hug as you manage to carve out a pretty decent life for yourself instead of blowing all of your cash as you might have done otherwise.
# 2 – Taking it back to the kitchen
If there’s one skill that moms love to pass down, it’s cooking. In fact, if she’s anything like most, the chances are that your mom would bake with you before you even knew what was happening. In your teen years, too, she might’ve encouraged you to make your own way in the kitchen, regardless of how hard you resisted her and stuck with packet noodles in protest.
Again, though, don’t underestimate how crucial those kitchen-based lessons could prove once you’re out in the world. After all, in keeping with the financial theme, being able to cook for yourself is going to save you a small fortune over having to eat out or stock up on ready meals every week. Equally, crucial skills that many of us learn from our moms, including how to make a bechamel sauce or a decent shortcrust pastry, can significantly reduce the kitchen disasters we experience, and thus make for a far more pleasant, wholesome cooking experience for either all of those dinner parties we’ll be hosting with friends or, later down the line, for our own family meals.
# 3 – Cleaning doesn’t take care of itself
When we live at home, the chances are that our moms take care of the majority of cleaning for us and, in most cases, we’re pretty deaf to her protestations that there isn’t actually such a thing as a cleaning fairy. Yet, as mess piles up when we move into our own places, many of us may come to appreciate just how much laundry and general cleaning our moms did behind the scenes.
Remembering this is especially essential for helping to avoid an escalating mess or a feeling that we can never quite get control, and will come back to remembering everything from the dish soap brands our moms swore by to the small hints and tips she once shared about laundry, stains, and so on. Even if you find that you develop your own cleaning rhythm later, using your mom’s routine and habits as a starting point can help to make your first days and weeks of living solo less painful, and could well become the cleaning foundation on which you build a better home for yourself, even in the future.
# 4 – Moms always know best
When we’re teenagers and our moms tell us that they know best, we’re most often inclined to roll our eyes and assume that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. In reality, though, as soon as you start to realize the value of lessons like those mentioned here, you’ll quickly come to see that she wasn’t just saying this after all.
With this in mind, perhaps the most important lesson your mom can teach you about adulting is simply that you should never try to do something alone when your mom could be on hand to help you. Whether you need assistance putting the lessons already mentioned into practice, or come across an entirely unexpected adulting setback that your mom never had a chance to prepare you for, giving her a call or simply considering what she would do if she were in your situation could turn out to be the best option for seeing yourself through and finding a solution that you can always turn to from that point on.
A final word
Our moms, or the people who fill that role in our lives, have often learned by experience what adult life really requires. While it’s natural to fight against the seriousness of these lessons in our younger lives, knowing when we should start listening is crucial for ensuring a smoother transition into adulthood in general. Whether you’re struggling to settle into solo life or are facing unique challenges that make it difficult to grow, finally accepting your moms lessons could certainly help you to flourish at long last.
