Gen Z Flocks to ‘Adulting 101’ for Basic Life Skills Help
They can code TikToks in their sleep — but can’t cook rice without a YouTube tutorial.
Gen Z is flocking to “Adulting 101” crash courses, desperate to learn what previous generations might call common sense: how to do laundry, budgeting for rent or navigating a grocery store without Googling “what is a turnip?”
“I don’t know how to change a tire. I don’t have a car at all. I don’t know how to sew. I don’t know how to do a lot of things, other than cooking,” admitted Aldhen Garcia, a freshman at Canada’s Toronto Metropolitan University, on CBC’s “The Current.”
“I think it’s so important that children are taught financial literacy. A lot of stuff involves money,” he added.
He’s not alone. Canadian colleges like the University of Waterloo are stepping in to teach the basics with online toolkits like “Adulting 101,” which covers everything from healthy relationships to how not to set your kitchen on fire.
“There’s a lot of things that are missed in education about when you actually become an adult,” echoed Bella Hudson, a third-year TMU student.
She told the radio program, “I do wish that they had classes that taught how to manage yourself and manage your life.”
What’s cooking — besides ramen — is a cultural reckoning.
According to Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of “Generations,” today’s twentysomethings are hitting adulthood with empty toolboxes.
“Kids are growing up less independent. They’re less likely to learn how to do adult things as high school students. Then they get to university and they still don’t know,” Twenge said on “The Current.”
“We send them off to adulthood without other skills. If they’re not learning how to make decisions on their own and solve problems, that can be challenging.”
Twenge blames helicopter parenting and extended adolescence — made worse by rising numbers of young adults living with mom and dad. “You are just more likely to be financially dependent on your parents for longer,” she noted.
Stateside, students are seeing the same gaps.
“NYC high schools are failing their students — not academically, but practically,” New York City 10th grader Zack Leitner wrote in The Post last month.
“Until the 1960s, NYC high schoolers learned to cook, clean and sew as part of their standard curriculum. In 2025, they’d be lucky if they knew how to do their laundry.”
Leitner says the long-lost home economics class — ditched during the Women’s Liberation movement — left behind crucial life lessons for all genders.
Today’s students, he argues, are launched into adulthood with no idea how to fold a fitted sheet or roast a chicken.
“What today’s youth need are ‘Adulting 101’ classes,” he insisted. “A lack of these skills makes youth feel adrift once they enter the ‘real world.’”
Waterloo’s director of student success, Pam Charbonneau, agrees.
“What you’re experiencing is normal. A lot of your peers are going through the same thing at the same time,” she told students like Garcia, as reported by the CBC.
And while she supports universities offering help, Twenge says the real fix starts earlier. “Limiting kids’ freedom and not teaching them practical skills is doing them a disservice,” she said.
Because whether it’s interest rates or ironing a shirt — ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s expensive.
