"Adulting" classes teach millennials basic skills like sewing, cooking and how to deal with relationships
Millennials who feel they lack some basic life skills can now take "adulting" classes, which are expanding across the country. The classes teach life skills like cooking, budgeting and time management, CBS New York reports, and young adults are signing up for lessons in person and online.
Rachel Flehinger co-founded the aptly named Adulting School in Portland, Maine. This month, she is launching online classes geared toward millennials who want to learn how to sew on a button, understand modern art or even deal with love.
The course curriculum on love will include "how to have a relationship, how to talk to someone, conflict resolution — how not to fight," Flehinger said. It will even offer guidance on how to tell someone you love them.
Elena Toumaras, 29, is currently learning an adult skill she was never taught before – cooking. Toumaras is attending a cooking class in Queens to help fill a gap in her life skill knowledge. "I was so used to, when living at home, my mom always cooking," she said. "Doing simple things now that I'm on my own, I'm struggling with it."
Experts say millennials are behind on these skills because many haven't left childhood homes. The U.S. Census Bureau said in 2015, 34 percent of Americans between 18 and 34 still lived with a parent. That's compared to just 26 percent in 2005.
"It's more common than living with roommates and more common than living with a spouse," demographer Jonathan Vespa said.
Young adults are also marrying and having kids later – ultimately learning basic, yet crucial, life skills later in life, too.
A Kentucky high school is trying to prevent these late-in-life knowledge gaps by having students take an "adulting" class while still in their teens. Bullitt Central High School designated one day as "Adulting Day," when seniors could spend time learning practical skills rather than math, science and history, WAVE reports.
While some people don't learn how to "adult" until well into their adulthood, it's better late than never, says Kim Calichio, who teaches cooking classes. "I'm always surprised about people not knowing what I think are the simple things as far as knife skills, or flavors that go together," Calichio said.
