5 Life Lessons To Teach Your Kids During El Paso’s Stay At Home Order

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued an order that all schools in the state should remain closed until May 4. Of course that order might get extended depending on what happens with the coronavirus outbreak, but until then, you have your beasties at home. Schools are offering online learning so they keep up with their classroom studies, but what about life lessons? They're learning that things can change on a dime and life as we know it can be completely shutdown from one day to the next, but they also need to learn some things that will help them live their day-to-day lives as an adult.

Here are 5 life lessons all kids should learn:

1. Match the lids - Every week or so, I have my granddaughters match the lids on all the plastic containers I have. There is nothing worse than having 75 lids and 103 containers and none of them match. Life lesson learned: Keep your space tidy and know that you'll always have a certain number of missing socks and plastic container lids.

2. Organize canned goods - There is nothing worse than getting home from the grocery store and realizing you now have 17 cans of lima beans but no cans of mushroom soup. Life lesson learned: Always check your pantry before you go shopping so you don't waste money or end up with cans of lima beans because who the heck eats those anyway?

3. Pull the weeds - Nobody wants their neighbors to drive by their house and see 3 foot tall weeds. Teach those beasties to be good neighbors and pull the weeds by the roots. Life lesson learned: Don't ever be the house where people walk by and say this.

4. Vacuuming 101 - After the coronavirus stay-at-home orders are lifted and we all go back to normal life chances are your beasties might throw a bash or two. The morning after they might want to clean up a bit so teach them the joys of vacuuming so your house and their future apartment are clean. Life lesson learned: Cleaning, good. Apartment floor that looks like hobos live there, bad.

5. Cook dinner - No man should be reliant on a woman for dinner. Teach your sons how to roast a chicken, make pasta, cook an egg for breakfast. No woman should be stumped when it comes to making a meal for herself or her family. The next time a national emergency comes around you and your beasties should make meal plans and grocery shop for all the things that don't come out of the frozen food aisle. Life lesson learned: You'll save money by cooking and not have to worry about starving because all the restaurants are closing down.